Ancient and more modern drawings are attracting more and more customers. Artwork on brown paper with a furtive pencil stroke, artists' studies, sketches, proofs by regional artists - it is all rising in value. These "papers" often show the beauty of an artist's pen work and how he prepared a major work. Do not forget that in the famous bric-a-brac boxes at St Ouen, it is not unheard of to unearth the preparatory work of major celebrities. Do not hesitate to take a closer look at these drawings and root through the boxes. Fragonard and Greuse are clearly among the most sought after, but there is also work by Ingres, Millet and Watteau, and this is how you may stumble across that little treasure that will go for several hundreds of thousands of francs in the auction rooms. The 19th century French schools are currently hot property with auctioneers.

A few ideas of current auction prices: Trinquesse (1746-1800) "young lady sitting, leaning on a chair". Sanguine 40,000 F; Adrina Frans van der Meulen "study of horsemen". Black pencil on grey paper 12,000 F; Gaspard Duchet (1615-1675) "animated scenery". Pen and ink wash in brown ink, 10,000 F. Jean Hélion (1904-1987), "man sitting", gouache-enhanced charcoal on plywood paper on canvas, 70,000 F (see photo).