Europe

The latest round of art auctions in Ireland showed a marked buoyancy with totals and selling rates up on recent years.

This early 20th century Russian silver and cloisonné enamel pill box measuring just 1½in (3.5cm) across bears marks for Fabergé and Feodor Ruckert (1840-1917).

The Japanese netsuke carver Naito Toyomasa (1773-1856) was renowned for his miniature portrayals of animals in a distinctive, highly detailed style.

Selection of advertising art underlines the extraordinary demand in Germany

Two very different pieces of glass went way over the odds at a specialist sale at Dr Fischer (30% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn.

In 1934, a meeting of two great modern painters took place in Bern. One of them was the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who had left Germany shortly before the end of the First World War.

Two impressive vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg took top honours at the sale held by Auktionshaus OWL (27% buyer’s premium) on May 16 in Bad Driburg in North-Rhine-Westfalia.

The illustrated book that Vasily Kandinsky published in 1913 under the title 'Klänge' (Sounds) is considered one of the finest examples of Expressionist literature.

Many of the Austrian designer Gustav Gurschner’s works of art were driven by the new possibilities provided by electricity.

Until now, paintings by the Dutch artist Lode Sengers (1896-1956) have rarely gone into four figures.

The Van Blarenberghes were a dynasty of artists from Lille in northern France.

Rare Renaissance item hammered at €450,000 is boosted by armorial for two significant families

Geneva’s blue ribbon jewellery sales are not the obvious place to find a suite of mid-18th century English silver dessert plates.

Among the highlights of the Fine Jewellery sale at Adam’s in Dublin on May 12 was this remarkable Louis XV hardstone, gold and gemset cane handle.

A seemingly never-ending bidding match ensued at Cortrie in Hamburg on May 9 for a tourbillon-watch by the German watchmaker Richard Miklosch (1939-2014) .

With Sixties and Seventies style again part of the collecting zeitgeist, vintage Kutchinsky pieces are now common currency for the best of the UK’s antique and vintage jewellery dealers and auction houses. However, it also pays to look further afield.