Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Bought for £1 in a charity shop, will Chinese vase be worth £80,000?
26 August 2019Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.
Pick of the week: American saleroom signals the way to English creamware
26 August 2019Some of the rarest and most desirable of all English creamware jugs were those made for the American market. One of them, titled Signals at Portland Observatory, sold for $4400/£3600 (plus premium) at the Bourgeault-Horan auction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Collector snaps up best of Charlotte Rhead
26 August 2019‘One-of-a-kind’ tubelined charger by Staffordshire ceramicist brings £3300 on local soil.
How ‘duty dodgers’ can pay their way at auction today
26 August 2019The term ‘duty dodgers’ is applied to pieces that were not sent for assay during the period 1720-58 when a steep tax was placed on silver. Silversmiths had a variety of methods of escaping this tax – including transposing marks from small articles to large or overstriking marks from older pieces.
Mask ‘matches Crosby Garrett find’
26 August 2019Roman relic up for auction is believed to be from same workshop as famous helmet.
Silver auction previews: including a George V bowl modelled on the Winchester measure
26 August 2019A selection of silver lots coming up in the salerooms.
Famed dynasty detailed in diaries and journals
26 August 2019An archive relating to a once famous Suffolk dynasty comes for sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on September 10-11. The diaries, journals and letters of Lady Ann Cullum (1807-75) of Hardwick House near Bury St Edmunds form part of a Fine Interiors sale.
Tennants appoints new silver specialist
26 August 2019Jeffrey Lassaline has joined Tennants as silver and objects of vertu specialist.
Power of Scotland – spotlight on British silver produced north of the border
26 August 2019Of the 24 silversmiths known to have worked in the Aberdeenshire town of Banff from the 17th century until the trade died out in the mid-1800s, William Scott the Elder is the first whose name is recorded.
Silver hammer highlights: including a table snuff box with an Indian Mutiny connection
26 August 2019A selection of stand-out auction results for silver in recent sales.
Pick of the week: 18th century dockyard plans detailing the Royal Navy war machine attract wave of bids
19 August 2019A complete set of plans showing what was once the world’s largest industrial complex and the British state’s single biggest investment has sold in Cornwall. Thomas Milton’s plans of the Royal Dockyards sold to an online buyer for £10,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) at David Lay's latest sale in Penzance.
The sound of a William and Mary spinet sold for £5500 in Islington
19 August 2019Relatively few English spinets from the 17th century survive but one surfaced at a Criterion auction in Islington. Loosely catalogued and estimated at just £100-200, it made £5500 (plus premium).
Four lots to watch at auction this week including a single-owner collection from ‘London’s greatest film fan’
19 August 2019With estimates from £120-20,000, here are four previews from upcoming sales this week.
Pre-war Dinky toys deliver in specialist auction
19 August 2019Two rare pre-war Dinky trade boxes which had been in loft storage for two generations appeared for sale in Lincolnshire. Toy specialist M&M Auctions (21.6% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Spalding offered them on behalf of a family who had owned the toys since new in the mid-1930s.
