Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
'Unique' sulphide portrait of George Washington emerges
05 May 2025Possibly a pair with Franklin, but saleroom unable to trace another example depicting Washington
Rare Qianlong period painting headlines upcoming Hong Kong auction series
30 April 2025Sotheby’s Hong Kong Asian Art Week is led by one of the great imperial Qianlong period paintings in private hands – The Blue Goats by the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione and the Chinese court artist Jin Tingbiao.
Sotheby's conducts its ‘longest ever bidding battle' as 20ft Chinese scroll flies over estimate
29 April 2025Hong Kong auctioneer CC Wang conducted Sotheby’s ‘longest ever bidding battle’ when a calligraphy handscroll by a Yuan dynasty master took over 200 bids and 97 minutes to sell.
Dealer offers Hilary Mantel’s desk used to write Wolf Hall trilogy
28 April 2025Among the attractions at this year’s ‘Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair’ on May 15-18 is the desk upon which Hilary Mantel wrote her celebrated ‘Wolf Hall’ trilogy.
Shanks joins LADAPA as new chief executive to replace Simms
28 April 2025LAPADA, The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers, has announced the appointment of Elizabeth Shanks as its new chief executive officer from June 2025.
Pick of the Week: Watching Georgian life in a goldfish bowl
28 April 2025Stands and side tables were a prominent feature in many large Georgian houses and were used for a variety of quite specific purposes. However, it is extremely rare to find a piece of furniture designed specifically to take a goldfish bowl.
Reform Club acquires William IV clock that appeared at Cirencester auction
28 April 2025A new addition to the permanent collection of the Reform Club on Pall Mall is a William IV Scottish eight-day painted dial longcase.
‘Nomadic’ dealer’s items set for new home
28 April 2025Sworders’ run of single-owner sales continues with a two-day auction on May 13-14 titled Paul Atkinson, The Nomadic Collector.
Reticulation adulation for Royal Worcester
28 April 2025A large-scale work by Royal Worcester’s near-legendary craftsman George Owen (1845-1912) led a recent sale at Philip Serrell (20% buyer’s premium) in Malvern, Worcestershire.
Auction turns over an old leaf: fragment from the Gutenberg Bible
28 April 2025Fragment found in an attic with receipt for £25 now sells for £39,000 hammer price
All the world is indeed a stage - playbill promotes Arctic theatre production
28 April 2025This rare playbill on silk printed in the Arctic in 1852 sold for £4400 at a recent sale at Keys (25% buyer’s premium) in Aylsham.
Overbeck’s early Nazarene painting sells at Tajan
24 April 2025A previously lost and unpublished work by Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) sold for €104,000 (£87,000) as part of the Tajan (26% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master Paintings and Drawings sale.
‘Extraordinary discovery’: Kangxi bird paintings valued at £800,000 emerge at Roseberys
23 April 2025A group of 19 album leaves from the celebrated ‘Imperial Manual of Birds’ have been discovered in homes in Dorset and London.
Strong demand for Charles Rennie Mackintosh works as cutlery suite makes five times estimate
23 April 2025The latest Design Since 1860 sale at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh was dominated by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928).
Cuneo’s painting of Germany’s unconditional surrender brings bidding at Sworders
22 April 2025A painting by Terence Cuneo depicting the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath has sold for £60,000 at Sworders.
Bonhams’ Japanese art sales moved out of London
21 April 2025In a loss to the sector, Bonhams has shelved its sales of Japanese works of art in London. Specialist Suzannah Yip, who had led Bonhams’ department for 18 years, has left the company after a decision was taken to move operations to Paris.
Prick of the bunch at £14,000 hammer
21 April 2025A diminutive Quaker pin cushion made to raise funds for a pioneering mental health hospital in York has sold for a remarkable sum at Woolley & Wallis.
Nature abhors a vacuum but Nollet’s audiences loved them
21 April 2025Among the more extraordinary forms of French furniture is the ‘machine pneumatique’ – a device used in the Age of Enlightenment to demonstrate the mysterious properties of the vacuum or ‘the energy of the nothingness’.
Chandigarh furniture designed by Jeanneret features in Cambridge and London auctions
21 April 2025In 1950, the Swiss artist, architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967) joined his cousin Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier) to create a new capital of Punjab.