Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Charles Voysey River Rug flows into auction
23 April 2018A hand-coloured design for Charles Voysey’s 'River Rug' surfaced at Lawrences of Crewkerne where it sold at £21,000 (plus premium).
Naming names, Scandinavian style
23 April 2018Unlike other European jewellers, where designers and makers were often shrouded in anonymity, the Georg Jensen Co promoted its craftspeople and encouraged them to become names in their own right.
Photogenic gems including Julia Margaret Cameron link
23 April 2018An old photo of a former owner and a memorial inscription will seldom add commercial value to a Victorian locket. However, the example by the Phillips Brothers of Cockspur Street offered by Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) in Oxford on March 21 carried the inscription 'Julia Hay Norman, Died 3rd October 1873'.
Pick of the Week: South Indian rarity spotted alongside Soloman stars
23 April 2018An 18in (45cm) figure of Shiva Vinadhara c.12th century – £220,000.
A taste of cool Britannia in NYC
23 April 2018“They were as bold, diverse, and brave as René Lalique and his peers had been in the 1900s, bucking convention and tradition to change the landscape of British jewellery.”
Sumptuous tapestries help country house auction to total a hefty £1.75m for Sworders
19 April 2018The primary contents of North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire – including a collection of European tapestries that have been at the property for over a century - have sold at auction for close to £2m.
Antiques dealer Simon Spero’s special exhibition – his own blue and white collection
16 April 2018Kensington Church Street dealer Simon Spero is to sell his personal collection of English blue and white porcelain at a special exhibition next month.
No rolling 100-year date for ivory ban
16 April 2018BADA has clarified a key element of the government’s proposals for a near-complete ivory ban – the stipulation that all items qualifying for the ‘rarest and most important of its type’ and portrait miniature exemptions must be 100 years old.
Appliance of science: New hallmarks scheme for contemporary bronzes launched to fight fakes
16 April 2018To address the increasing number of fakes, The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) has launched a new digital ‘hallmark’ for editioned bronzes.
Pick of the Week: Chinese bronze taken from Summer Palace sells for six figures at auction
16 April 2018A rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, sold for £410,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at the Canterbury Auction Galleries.
Glasgow art school key to stay in Scotland after Edinburgh auction
16 April 2018In the year of the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, Lyon & Turnbull has sold the very key used to open his design masterpiece, The Glasgow School of Art, in 1899.
A time of war
16 April 2018Military issue watches, particular those from the Second World War, are bringing ever stronger prices.
Sotheby’s offers Schaeffer collection in Sydney auction
13 April 2018Sotheby’s Australia will auction what it calls “the most significant collection of historical international art” offered in the country later this month.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art key to stay in Scotland after it is sold at Edinburgh auction
13 April 2018In the year of the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, Lyon & Turnbull has sold the very key used to open the artist’s masterpiece The Glasgow School of Art in 1899.
Summer Palace bronze sells for £410,000 at Canterbury Auctions
11 April 2018An exceptionally rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, has sold for £410,000, four times its lower estimate.
Sotheby's spring Hong Kong auctions feature top-selling trio of Chinese imperial objects
09 April 2018Sotheby’s spring Hong Kong series included a trio of eight-figure Chinese imperial works of art.
Dutch auction house plans regular London sales
09 April 2018A Dutch auction house is planning to launch regular sales in London as, it says, the art and antiques market in Holland has contracted.
The ivory ban: the antique objects that could not be traded under the new law
09 April 2018ATG selects objects with ivory – from teasets to Art Deco figures – recently sold at auction that may become illegal to sell under the law
Pick of the Week: Iron Duke’s soft spot for a young lady
09 April 2018When Frances Noble, head of Dix Noonan Webb’s jewellery department, was shown this coronet with a family tradition connecting it to the Duke of Wellington, it was caked with dirt.
The ivory ban: ATG answers reader questions about the new law's implications for antique ivory
09 April 2018Roland Arkell and Noelle McElhatton on what the new ivory law could mean for art and antiques.