Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
A special look at the British design side of the Art Deco market a century after the movement began
07 April 2025With this year marking the 100th anninversary of the exhibition that gave Art Deco its name, we report on the British designers whose creations appear on the market
Pick of the Week: Jamaican views trump European
07 April 2025The Fine Sale on March 26 at Cheffins in Cambridge included a group of pictures consigned by a descendant of the artist known as Philip Villamil of Jamaica (1814-78).
English delft features in Slater collection sale
07 April 2025Graham Slater (1927-2024) was fascinated by relics of Stuart and Georgian Britain. His wife Rosemary shared his passions, including his love of mudlarking, exploring the banks of the Thames for fragments washed up by each new tide.
Brontë Parsonage buys Emily’s painting
07 April 2025The Brontë Parsonage was the successful bidder at £32,000 (plus premium) when an original watercolour drawing by Emily Brontë came for sale in London.
Lost portrait of Robert Burns appears at auction
02 April 2025A hitherto lost portrait of Robert Burns by Sir Henry Raeburn has resurfaced at Wimbledon Auctions on March 31.
Valuable collection of 15,000 coins to be auctioned
01 April 2025A spectacular coin collection, buried for over 50 years since the Second World War, is coming to the market
French silver flatware made for George III appears at Christie’s
31 March 2025Flatware from a French silver dinner service made for George III was pre-empted by the Louvre Museum at auction in Paris last month.
Cartier Tutti Frutti pin buyer nails at at £15,000
31 March 2025‘Tutti Frutti’ is the name given to Cartier’s range of brightly coloured jewels in the Indian style from the 1920s-30s.
Fond memories of Gorringe’s gone by - and excitement about the auction house's future
31 March 2025Sussex and Kent saleroom Gorringe’s begins a new chapter this month under full family ownership and new management.
Collector of Naga objects never went to meet the Nagas
31 March 2025Before independence in 1947, the Naga hill tribes of north-east India were considered an exotic society, radically different in culture and beliefs from the better-known Hindu peoples of the plains and renowned for their fierce resistance to British rule.
'Hidden in a skirt' to escape the Nazis, now sold at auction
31 March 2025Carl (1883-1946) and Rosa Askonas (1891-1980), were the toast of 1920s Austrian society.
Not in tip-top condition but cream jug belonged to Tipping
31 March 2025The sale at Bellmans (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst, West Sussex on February 17 included a small silver gilt rococo-style cream jug of a type that remains something of an enigma.
Pocket watch praised as ‘most complete and original example on the market for decades’
31 March 2025The Fine Jewellery & Watches sale at Wilson55 in Nantwich on March 20 included a rare pocket watch from the 1580s.
Mouseman works going, going, gong in Yorkshire
31 March 2025The craftsman-made Yorkshire oak furniture of Robert Thompson continues to be in high demand at auction.
Different jewels but both from the subcontinent
31 March 2025The Fine Jewellery sale at Dreweatts (26% buyer’s premium) in Newbury on March 19 included two quite different lots from the subcontinent - and both were well received.
Royal Doulton dunce achieves top-class result
31 March 2025Noke’s portrait of a humiliated child was one of the very first models from the Royal Doulton HN series
Napoleon’s own Civil Code copy sells in Paris
31 March 2025Before his death on St Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte said: “What nothing will erase, what will live forever, is my Civil Code.”
Writing chairs sat unnoticed until a deluge of enquiries poured in
31 March 2025Chinese chairs smaller and less formal than the ‘yoke-back’ or ‘horseshoe-back’ armchairs are referred to as rose chairs (meiguiyi) or writing chairs (wenyi).
Pick of the Week: Urns made in Glasgow sold in Glasgow
31 March 2025Among the most desirable of all Scottish garden ornaments are the Garnkirk urns, a pair of neoclassical vases first made for the Great Exhibition of 1851.