Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Looe customs in the 18th century
22 September 2025Back in July 2008 a rare Bristol delftware plate surfaced for sale. Decorated in the bianco sopra bianco style, it featured a bold image of a man on horseback and was inscribed 'A. Bosavern, Looe 1763'.
Five-year loan deal to put Thornhill collection on display
22 September 2025It was announced on September 6 that the University of Staffordshire has partnered with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to house the Thornhill collection of predominantly Chinese ceramics at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, with the aim of exhibiting it to the public for the first time since the 1980s.
Previews of sales surrounding Coinex
22 September 2025Coinex, the most important event on the British calendar for many serious coin collectors, opens at the Biltmore Hotel in Mayfair’s Grosvenor Square on September 26-27
Pattern book exercise in Victorian marketing
22 September 2025That Willow became the most popular and persistent of the many transfer-printed landscape patterns was in part due to a stroke of 19th century marketing genius.
Albert Einstein’s violin and bicycle saddle on offer at Gloucestershire auction
18 September 2025A violin used by Albert Einstein (1879-1955) during his ‘Annus Mirabilis’ comes for sale at Dominic Winter in South Cerney, Cirencester, on October 8.
Great George rides in as a £46,000 badge of honour
15 September 2025Noonans’ sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria in London on September 10 was led by an exceptional 18th century gold and enamel jewel.
Pick of the Pix comes to auction to benefit Ashmolean Museum
15 September 2025Part of an extensive collection of British and continental silver and glass, recently bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford by a couple who lived in the Loire Valley, will be sold at auction in France.
Brooches are ‘too often underestimated’ says Wartski specialist
15 September 2025Wartski’s Katherine Purcell stages a museum-quality loan exhibition devoted to the history and the magnificence of a classic jewellery form
Eccentric Trading: Pieces that found fame as screen props
15 September 2025On September 24-25, Lyon & Turnbull presents The Secret Life of Props: The Eccentric Trading Collection, a two-day single-owner auction of items that have shaped British film and television for a generation.
Collection of prominent Perth couple provides a piece of Australian history
15 September 2025Portrait of first governor of Western Australia stands out in a 745-lot auction offering colonial-era items
Delftware salt at Salisbury auction is rare survivor
15 September 2025Altar-like form of an item usually attributed to one of two Southwark makers reflects the reverence that the commodity once held
Bidders run rule over first book in English to look at laws that related to women
15 September 2025The Lawes Resolutions of Women’s Rights: or the Lawes Provision for Women, attributed to the English lawyer Thomas Edgar and printed in 1632 by John More, is recognised as the earliest book in the English language to compile laws relating to women.
Silver with scandalous ladies and ducal provenances
15 September 2025Silver flatware once owned by the so-called Ladies of Llangollen was offered in Cheffins’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest Jewellery, Silver & Watches auction in Cambridge.
Freemasons sent Mercury away
08 September 2025Following disagreements over ritual and governance, two rival Freemasonry grand lodges - the Antients and Moderns - had emerged in the 1750s.
Clarkson collection to be final Byrnes staging
08 September 2025The final auction at Pullman House in Saltney, Chester, home of Byrnes since 2003, will be the remarkable collection of 20th century design formed by Philip Clarkson on September 15-16.
New dealer launches in central London as Orpheus enters the gallery world
08 September 2025Owner of Apollo Art auction house launches antiquities specialist firm in London’s Marylebone
Rebels who became royal favourites: stand-out lots among property from the Earls of Airlie
08 September 2025Jacobite highlights from the Scottish Collected sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh
Scottish silver and Wemyss pottery put under the spotlight
08 September 2025The markets for Scottish provincial silver and Wemyss pottery both offer great opportunities for new collectors ready to take the plunge.