Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Mouseman furniture auction record set by prep school dining table
26 November 2025The 23-year-old auction record for Mouseman furniture has been broken by Hawleys at Beverley Racecourse, Yorkshire.
George III parquetry box with 72 wood specimens offered at Dreweatts
24 November 2025This rare George III parquetry box containing approximately 72 wood specimens to all sides and the interior was almost certainly made by Gillows c.1810.
Tattoo pioneer got to the point
24 November 2025Working in the Bowery neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan in the late 19th century, Samuel O’Reilly (1854-1909) transformed the art of tattooing.
Japanese art expert Suzannah Yip joins Alastair Gibson Auctions
24 November 2025Leading Japanese works of art specialist Suzannah Yip is now working in partnership with Alastair Gibson Auctions in Kent.
On a winner in the saleroom with lots relating to Nobel Prizes
24 November 2025A group of manuscripts that featured letters from 12 Nobel Prize-winning scientists was offered as part of Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Books and Maps timed online sale ending on November 2.
A Seamaster fit for a civilian
24 November 2025The 165.024 reference Omega Seamaster 300 was one of the most robust and practical dive watches of the Sixties.
Courvoisier portrait watches produced for Ottoman market
24 November 2025Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-73), a member of the famed Courvoisier family of Swiss watchmakers, specialised in the production of watches with portraits of 19th century royalty, such as Queen Victoria, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte or, in the case of watches sold in London and Stuttgart, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I.
Jean Rousseau’s £62,000 tulip bud
24 November 2025Jean Rousseau (1606-84) came from a renowned watchmaking family that settled in Geneva, the cradle for prosecuted French Protestants in the 1630s.
Elkanah Settle’s heartfelt, personal tribute to (insert name here)
24 November 2025‘Settle bindings’ are the name given to a small number of surviving books published between c.1700-23 by Elkanah Settle (1648-1724).
Watches that won the Battle of Trafalgar
24 November 2025Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar come for sale next month.
Jewellery sales bring good cheer ahead of festive season
22 November 2025Auctions with half an eye on the gift-giving season proliferate throughout late November and early December.
Nelson, Hardy and Collingwood watches 'worn at the Battle of Trafalgar' emerge at Spink auction
21 November 2025Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar, are coming for sale next month.
Anne Clark discoveries underline market strength
17 November 2025The sale of Chinese and other Asian Works of Art at Semley Auctioneers in Shaftesbury, Dorset, included the largest known group of works by the artist Mrs H Clark.
Outstanding Irish furniture from Mississippi Rococo collection comes back to the market
17 November 2025Important Irish mahogany furniture returned to market on November 11 when Brunk Auctions in North Carolina sold the so-called Mississippi Rococo collection of Jerold D Krouse.
Arts & Crafts collector Ray Leigh's treasured items come to auction in Gloucestershire
17 November 2025On November 25, Gloucestershire auction house Chorley’s is selling the personal collection of Ray Leigh (1928-2025), one of the more significant figures in post-war British design.
Eye-catching lover's eye ring was not necessarily for love
17 November 2025Lovers’ eyes became a la mode from c.1790 and remained fashionable in the courts and affluent families of England, Russia, France and North America until the early 1830s.
Gold rush memento from Australia offered in Birmingham
17 November 2025The gold rush that followed the discovery of significant deposits in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851, was a catalyst for the first colonial jewellery expressing an Australian identify.