Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Spoons – the great English survivors
07 December 2020As hugely personal items and of relatively small melt value, spoons represent the great majority of English domestic silver items surviving from the pre-civil war period.
Previews
07 December 2020A special focus on stand-out lots in decorative art & design auctions coming up this month.
Stitches in time for the Restoration
07 December 2020A rare Charles II commemorative silver thimble sold for £980 at Bleasdales (20% buyer’s premium).
Top-selling Chinese bowls star in our pick of five auction highlights sold this week
04 December 2020ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes a rare pair of Chinese porcelain blue and white bowls that doubled estimate in Bath.
Pick of the week: Rev Gilpin champions the Romantic ideal
30 November 2020The artist, cleric, schoolmaster and author William Gilpin (1724-1804) is best known as a champion of the Romantic idea of the picturesque.
Making moves for Anglo-Saxon ‘chess piece’
30 November 2020Estimated at £6000-8000, an Anglo-Saxon bronze gaming piece – a metal-detecting find for the consignor – sold for £95,000 (plus premium) at the latest auction at TimeLine in Harwich, Essex.
Odundo vase achieves record for single work by living potter at Maak auction
30 November 2020London studio pottery specialist Maak achieved a record £200,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) for this vessel by Magdalene Odundo (b.1950).
A John Knibb clock dial and a bronze portrait of WB Yeats’ muse are among the five lots to watch at auction
30 November 2020With estimates from £120-3000, here are five previews of upcoming items this week.
Dragons of the Qing as spectacular dishes sell at Sotheby's
30 November 2020Sotheby’s (26/21/14.9% buyer’s premium) Important Chinese Art sale on November 4 included two spectacular Qing dragon dishes – both consigned from continental European sources and both in near-perfect condition.
Guangxu in pastel shades
30 November 2020The term 'qianjiangcai' refers to a ‘pastel coloured’ palette of enamels used by Tongzhi (1856-75) and Guangxu (1875-1908), porcelain painters in the years after the Taiping rebellion and the destruction of the Jingdezhen kilns.
Lucky lacquer at Surrey sale
30 November 2020The November 11 Islamic & Oriental sale at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Fernhurst was topped at £6200 (estimate £400-600) by this 19th century cinnabar lacquer table mirror.
Auction previews: issue 2470
30 November 2020A selection of 13 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.
Qing gilt-bronze incense burner sells at 17-times estimate to Hong Kong buyer at Sworders
30 November 2020Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) latest Asian art sale in Stansted Mountfitchet included this ‘splashed’ gilt-bronze incense burner from the Qing (1644-1911) period.
Monochrome surprise as Chinese bowl brings hefty bidding at Dreweatts
30 November 2020The unexpected highlight of Dreweatts’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale on November 12 was provided by this copper red glazed globular form bowl.
Windfall sums for the three abundances at Olympia Auctions
30 November 2020The sale held by Matthew Barton at Olympia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on November 18 included a series of pairs of 6in (15cm) diameter porcelain bowls from a private European collection assembled in Hong Kong in the 1980s-90s.
The heavenly globe: Exceptional Qing famille rose vase soars over estimate at Chiswick Auctions
30 November 2020“The first sight I had of the vase was from an old photograph and my heart skipped a beat,” said Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) specialist Lazarus Halstead of this spectacular 20in (51cm) Qing famille rose vase.
Magnificent monteith is £90,000 prize
30 November 2020It is thought that the earliest Chinese porcelain monteith appeared c.1715, coinciding with the establishment of the East India Company’s factory in Canton.
Textbook Kangxi blue and white vases emerge at sales in the north and south
30 November 2020Pictured below are two textbook Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white vases.
Early wares with Janssens provenance provide highlights to Roseberys sale
30 November 2020On November 11 in West Norwood, London, Roseberys (25% buyer’s premium) offered 50 lots from the estate of Anglo-Dutch collectors Albert (1927-2018) and Leonie van Daalen-Roell (1930-2018). Many pieces – typically early bronzes and sancai glazed ceramics from the classic era – had been bought from London dealer Ben Janssens Oriental Art.