Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Comment: Trade is putting up a good fight against Trump’s tariff
13 August 2018The US-China trade war, previously the stuff of new technology, heavy industry and agribusiness, has now opened a new front: cultural heritage. The threat of a 25% tariff on imported Chinese art and antiques will soon be discussed in Washington, DC.
Ancient antiquities seized from dealer returned to Iraq after British Museum research
10 August 2018Eight Sumerian antiquities seized by the Metropolitan Police from a London dealer in 2003 are to be returned to Iraq after identification by the British Museum.
Sotheby’s latest figures show sales up but profit margins lower than expected
06 August 2018Sotheby’s made more sales but at lower margins in the first half of 2018 according to its latest financial results.
UK books trade on alert after US library theft
06 August 2018Rare books and prints valued at millions of dollars remain at large in the international market in the wake of a US library theft.
Pick of the Week: John Gibson terracotta sculpture emerges from house clearance
06 August 2018Part of the intake for a general sale, a terracotta sculpture by a protégé of Antonio Canova sold for £21,000 (plus premium) at Reeman Dansie in Colchester.
Guards at the Carmarthen sale forefront
06 August 2018A famous royal regiment was remembered at the Peter Francis (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Carmarthen.
Jonathan Pratt takes MD role at Dreweatts
23 July 2018Jonathan Pratt, among the best-known faces of the UK regional auction scene, is to leave Bellmans to become managing director of Dreweatts 1759.
Crude and rude proves a winning formula as Viz makes auction record
23 July 2018A new auction record for a copy of a Viz comic was set during The Comic Book Sale at Anderson & Garland of Newcastle.
Tea and coffee service showing taverns and peasant life serves up £6800 result
23 July 2018Not every Victorian silver tea and coffee service was sold for scrap in the great meltdown of 2011– when at one point the price reached almost £30 per oz.
Murphy pendant sparkles in Salisbury
23 July 2018Chosen as the front-cover illustration to Paul Atterbury and John Benjamin’s 'The Jewellery and Silver of HG Murphy' (2005), this gemset pendant also provided Woolley & Wallis’ latest Jewellery and Watches sale with its showcase lot.
Top quality counts in Dorchester auction
23 July 2018While good-quality but familiar Georgian silver such as entrée dishes, tureens and sauceboats estimated in the £6000-12,000 range met stiff resistance at Dorchester auction house Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) on June 28, two top-quality pieces made their money.
Long tongs pick up impressive result in Irish auction
23 July 2018These outsize tongs, below, proved the major surprise at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on June 17.
Pounce pot is example of work by successful Georgian female silversmith
23 July 2018As collecting evolves, many pieces of decorative, and historically captivating, Georgian silver are priced very keenly at both auction and retail.
Detail in the Devlin
23 July 2018The recent death of designer Stuart Devlin and the book he published just a few months before could lead to a reappraisal of his work.
Feeling beastly in the Netherlands and Germany
23 July 2018The so-called auricular style – all organic fluid lines and asymmetrical shapes populated by marine invertebrates and reptiles – can first be found in the 1598 ornament book of Northern Mannerism, Architectura…, by Wendel Dietterlin of Stuttgart.
Candlesticks by Coker and Cafe light up sales in Cambridge and Lewes
23 July 2018Pairs of Georgian candlesticks by the best-known London specialist makers such as William Cafe and Ebenezer Coker continue to sell well enough, as long as condition is acceptable.
Buyers on the scent of Chiswick Auctions silver
23 July 2018This novelty silver scent bottle, below, appealing to two niche sections largely immune to the swings of the larger silver market, was a target for collectors when offered at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).
Spoon and snail on offer – but nothing sluggish about bidding at Somerset auction
23 July 2018Considering that Norwich was, after London, the largest and wealthiest city in England from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, its assay office (1562-1705) was comparatively shortlived. As such, secular silver produced in the city rarely appears on the market.
Falcon Studio silver from HG Murphy family flies into Salisbury sale
23 July 2018Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) is currently selling across a number of auctions a cache of items from the family of HG Murphy (1884-1939), whose Falcon Studio produced some of the finest English silver of the inter-war era.
Judges in California shelve law for artist resale right
18 July 2018The 1977 California Resale Royalties Act has effectively been shelved after panel of judges struck down the law – the US’s only ‘droit de suite’ law for visual artists.