⁄espite the grim economic picture we have today, it is wonderful to be able to say that we had a very good show, our gate was up, and many of the exhibitors reported good sales,†Melvin ⁂utch†Arion, show manager, said. Ninety-six dealers filled Memorial Hall East on the York Fairgrounds for the 157th Semi-Annual Original York Antiques Show & Sale, September 2‴.

In spite of a special appearance by Tropical Storm Irene, it was standing room only at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries†sale August 27′8. Fine art and Chinese antiques dominated the list of high performing lots but several eclectic pieces also generated strong bidder response and high prices.

Stolen from a private collection during the evening of September 8 as reported to the Houston Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a  Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting, ⁍adeleine Leaning on Her Elbow with Flowers in Her Hair,†1918, 19¾ by 16¼ inches.

The top lot of Rock Island Auction Company⁳ premier firearms auction September 9‱1 was a rare early production US Colt Model 1911 semiautomatic pistol, serial number 33, that attained $109,250, setting a world auction record for a US Colt 1911 Army pistol.

Papermania Plus, perhaps the best-known ephemera and collectibles event on the East Coast, turned 35 years old this year, and by virtue of its twice-a-year run, marked its 60th show on August 20 and 21 at the XL Center..

Northeast Auction⁳ annual August tribute to maritime and China Trade art and antiques is one sale that no one who loves this material misses. One way or another, the buyers are there †in the room or, increasingly, on a smart phone, tablet or laptop. This year⁳ sale under the tent at Treadwell Mansion drew phone interest from Europe and Australia, as well as Asia and the Middle East.

Not always known for its humorous shows, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is showing ⁉nfinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine†through March 4.

Puppets, pots and peregrination made for the remarkable and prodigious careers of Mary Goldsmith Scheier and Edwin O. Scheier, whose blended natural aptitude and high aesthetic sense resulted in some of the most important studio pottery of the American Twentieth Century. Both were largely self-taught ceramicists, and once they began to focus on pottery, the Scheiers and their work were highly sought after. Much of their enormous output was functional, most frequently commissioned. From the very beginning, they depended on local clay they often dug themselves. They drew on a myriad of influences: rural Virginia and Tennessee ceramic traditions, the whimsy of puppets, ancient and native Mexican imagery and the prevailing aesthetic of the nearly entire century in which they lived, all garnered from their peripatetic careers and expressed through their own innate gifts.

The Kimbell Art Museum has announced one of the most important acquisitions in its history: French painter Nicolas Poussin⁳ ⁓acrament of Ordination (Christ Presenting the Keys to Saint Peter),†which the museum put on view September 14.

As Hurricane Irene moved north pounding the East Coast, and mere days before reaching New England, Julia⁳ four-day Maine auction was held August 23′6, featuring antiques and fine art.