Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Buyer gets a grip on exceptional Louis XV cane handle
15 May 2026Among 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.
Kutchinsky shines in Stuttgart
15 May 2026With 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.
Da Messina discovered in private collection
15 May 2026This oil on panel portrait of a saint is an addition to the small number of autographs by Quattrocento painter Antonello da Messina.
The name’s Bondt, Jean-Thierry Bondt
15 May 2026The Fine Jewellery & Watches sale in Bellmans in Billingshurst on May 21 includes this Boucheron yellow guilloché enamel and brilliant cut diamond flower brooch.
Region’s leading price for stellar Victorian jewel
15 May 2026Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester sold a Victorian diamond and natural saltwater pearl double pendant brooch for £570,000 earlier this year, a house record for jewellery.
Bowl ‘given by the Bonnie Prince during wanderings’ finds new home at English auction
15 May 2026An intriguing Jacobite relic was sold at a recent Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) auction in Nottingham.
Happy days in Yorkshire
15 May 2026With so much gold and silver jewellery heading for the melting pot in recent months, Spicers (20% buyer’s premium) in Old Goole, East Yorkshire, was pleasantly surprised by the performance of this tiny 0.7g 9ct gold and enamel charm.
Pistrucci: Like father, like daughter
15 May 2026Benedetto Pistrucci (1783-1855), who worked as chief engraver and chief medallist to the Royal Mint, had two daughters who he trained in gem engraving.
Lacloche bracelet sparkles at £90,000
15 May 2026Founded in Spain in 1875 by brothers Fernand, Jules, Léopold and Jacques, Lacloche Frères became one of the great French jewellers of the Art Deco period.
Pink topaz and diamond brooch sets house record at Perthshire auction
15 May 2026Perth saleroom Lindsay Burns (22% buyer’s premium) posted a new house record with an exceptional piece of period jewellery at its latest three-day sale.
Cameo appearance for glyphic art among Salisbury’s jewels
15 May 2026Interest in glyphic art, that reached its collecting apogee during Grand Tour collecting, is resurgent once more.
A price to remember – spotlight on mourning
15 May 2026The grim mortality rate of 17th century Britain precipitated a taste for memento mori jewellery that reached its height of popularity in the early 1700s.
Focus on Murano includes Martens vase
15 May 2026London dealer Liliane Fawcett, who since 1984 has traded from Notting Hill as Themes and Variations, began acquiring Italian post-war glass just as the secondary market was forming.
Hong Kong auctions get off to an auspicious start
08 May 2026Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s Asian Art Week was led by the earliest extant court painting by the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766).
Descendant consigns two prime minister portraits to Essex auction
08 May 2026Portraits of the third and fourth prime ministers of Great Britain are among the highlights of a fine collection of British portraiture that comes for sale at Sworders on May 19.
Works with a licence to thrill: book collectors' first editions in demand at auction
08 May 2026Fine collection of British modern novels amassed over decades includes earliest editions with dust jackets
Quentin Blake originals bring back fond memories at auction
08 May 2026Arabel and her anarchic pet raven, Mortimer, were first introduced in 1974 on the children’s television show Jackanory.
Books, maps and prints auction previews
08 May 2026A selection of upcoming highlights at UK, US and European auctions
First days of the US and much more
08 May 2026Ahead of a very busy period for the trade, we kick off our guide to the events coming up with a London fair marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.