Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Rare full set of Dutch West Indies views emerges in Holland
14 July 2025This image of Paramaribo on the banks of the Suriname River is one of the 18 lithographic views of the Dutch West Indies after Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck van Beest (1828-94).
John Ward group tests the market at Mallams
14 July 2025A recent sale of Modern Art & Design at Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) in Oxford included a local collection of 21 pots by John Ward (1938-2023).
Sign of the times: Union Castle enamel advert sails to UK’s second highest price
11 July 2025A large maritime-themed advertising sign featuring the passenger liner Capetown Castle sold for £22,000 at bottles and advertising specialists BBR Auctions on July 6.
Sex Pistols and punk: a poster debut makes a huge sum at auction
07 July 2025A rare poster heralding the birth of the British punk movement hammered for a massive £43,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at Omega Auctions on July 1.
Spartiate’s Jack flies once more at £850,000
07 July 2025Still bearing the physical scars of battle, a monumental Union Jack flown by HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar led Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London.
France protects US from the British lion
07 July 2025A fine example of the Libertas Americana silver medal is estimated to fetch between £50,000-80,000 at Anderson & Garland’s Fine Silver and Objects of Vertu auction in Newcastle on July 22.
Wedgwood hails an American spy
07 July 2025A rarity at a recent Woolley & Wallis (26% buyer’s premium) ceramics and glass sale was a late 18th century Wedgwood basalt intaglio seal, featuring a profile portrait of the notorious American spy Captain Nathan Hale (1755-76) beside the reversed inscription 'My Country!!!'.
Spot the goalie competition: toy footballers score at auction
07 July 2025Footballers were among the very first of the Britains hollowcast lead ‘civilian’ figures.
Interest lodged in Beilby tumblers
07 July 2025Among the great Beilby discoveries of recent times was the emergence - from two separate sources across 14 years - of six small firing glasses decorated in red, yellow and white enamel with Masonic emblems.
Liverpool and Limehouse: Maurice Hillis ceramics collection appears at Bonhams
07 July 2025Ceramics expert’s collection sold at auction included notable pieces made on Merseyside but also a Limehouse cup that proved very popular with bidders
William Billingsley: artistic genius and utter rogue
07 July 2025The great Georgian porcelain decorator and technician William Billingsley (1758-1828) was that recognisable type: artistic genius and downright rogue.
Flag flown at Battle of Trafalgar brings spirited bidding at Christie's
03 July 2025Still bearing the physical scars of battle, a monumental Union Jack flown by HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar led Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London on July 1.
Magdalene Odundo takes British studio pottery to a new high at Sotheby’s auction
02 July 2025British studio pottery moved into new financial territory at the end of June with the sale of a vase by Dame Magdalene Odundo (b.1950) for £570,000.
‘When dealers co-operate, great things can happen’
30 June 2025Paxton House in Berwick-upon-Tweed has been reunited with an important Regency sofa it had lost for a century.
Cape silver collection on sale in South Africa
30 June 2025A substantial collection of 18th and 19th century Cape silver, made by European silversmiths practising in South Africa, is coming for sale at Strauss & Co in Johannesberg.
Pamphlets reveal longitude dispute
30 June 2025Courtesy of Dava Sobel’s 1995 best-seller, the compelling story of a Yorkshire horologist’s struggle to receive a prize for creating a reliable and accurate method for determining longitude at sea is well known.
Silver that tells many stories: the Peter Cameron collection comes to the saleroom
30 June 2025Stock of retiring dealer offered at auction includes items with fascinating backgrounds
Norfolk auction includes big hitters offered with hugely different estimates
30 June 2025Two separate lots at the recent books and manuscripts sale held by TW Gaze (26.4% inc VAT) in Diss, Norfolk sold at £20,000.
Incredibly rare Hellenistic coin dies in sheikh's collection survived the centuries
30 June 2025Only a very few coin dies have survived from antiquity so there was great interest in the Hellenistic examples offered by Apollo Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on June 8.
