Europe

At the Drouot auction centre in June around 3000 items of Asian art went under the hammer in a series of 20 auctions that were either dedicated sales or featured substantial Asian sections.

The island of St Helena featured in a folding plate from a 1598, first English edition of Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s famous Itinerario – published as Discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies – offered by Ketterer Kunst (20% buyer’s premium) on May 22.

Promoted in a catalogue issued by Fonsie Mealy (20/25% buyer’s premium) for its May 20 sale as something “for the collector who has (almost) everything”, an autograph section from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake was sold at €27,000 (£23,480).

It is high season for sales in Paris and the Drouot auction centre, home to 75 firms, is busy with its usual roster across all disciplines.

For previous generations of artist jewellers, from René Lalique to Andrew Grima, retail sales and private commissions were everything. Typically it was only much later in the collecting lifecycle, after a period of posthumous reassessment and rediscovery, that their work appeared at auction with any great regularity.

The Brussels Vintage Market was launched in 2010 at the delightfully named café Madame Moustache with about a dozen vintage vendors.

This rather unsettling woodcut illustration shown above, an almost surreal depiction of an amputation, is taken from from a 1515, Grüninger of Strasbourg edition of Hieronymous Brunschwig’s Das buch der wund Artzeny. Handwirkung der Cirurgia.

Art books in a Ketterer Kunst (20% buyer’s premium) sale of May 22 included one of 15 deluxe copies of a 1950 edition of Harry Roskolenko’s Paris Poems, containing an original watercolour by Zau Wou-Ki and an extra suite of his lithographed illustrations. It sold at €42,000 (£36,240).

The panther is a big cat much favoured by sculptors – not only the animaliers but also those who searched for a stylishly sleek motif during the early 20th century, where it can be seen depicted on screens and vases as well as in the round.

ATG's selection of upcoming sale highlights.

An enticingly estimated drawing by the 17th century English court portraitist Sir Peter Lely offered for sale in a French provincial auction drew a flurry of attention from English trade and private bidders last week. It was propelled to over 20-times its estimate.

The tribal art auction to be held at Drouot by Binoche et Giquello on June 22 features a mix of African and Oceanic artefacts and will include two lots that formerly belonged to the artist Tristran Tzara.

This Chinese gilt-bronze figure of Guandi is the catalogue cover lot for the next auction at Veritas in Lisbon, on June 27-28.

Alain Lesieutre was one of the dealers and authors who pioneered the revival of interest in Art Nouveau and Deco in the second half of the 20th century.

A selection of drawings by the French painter-explorer André Maire (1898-1984) comes to the Dumonteil Gallery in Paris for the exhibition Indochina, Meeting Men and Gods.