Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell

The £30 bottle once thought to be fake is now the real auction deal at £18,000
16 July 2018A Yorkshire collector who bought what he thought was a replica antique bottle at a fair for just £30 has sold it for a hammer price of £18,000 at auction after discovering it really was from the 17th century.

Pick of the week: Hours and centuries of famous owners
16 July 2018Estimated at £200,000-300,000, the 'Hours of Isabella d’Este' sold at £340,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures on July 10.

Guelph Treasure claim can go to court in US
16 July 2018A Washington DC appeals court has upheld a decision to allow a ‘Nazi forced sale’ claim against a collection of medieval devotional art to go to trial in the US.

Archaeological dig at the battlefield of Waterloo wins support from Bonhams
16 July 2018Auction house Bonhams is sponsoring Waterloo Uncovered, an archaeological dig at the battlefield of Waterloo.

Record set for Sir Quentin Blake illustration as 40-year collection sells at auction
13 July 2018Watercolours and drawings from the personal collection of artist Sir Quentin Blake (b. 1932) have been sold at Christie’s for over £750,000.

'Nazi-loot' claim over $250m Guelph Treasure can go to trial in US federal court
13 July 2018A Washington DC appeals court has upheld a decision to allow a ‘Nazi forced sale’ claim against a spectacular collection of medieval devotional art to go to trial in the US.

Hailwood makes quick return with Dreweatts
09 July 2018Wristwatch expert Adrian Hailwood has joined Dreweatts as a senior specialist.

Rarest of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ comes to auction
09 July 2018This unassuming Grana military issue c.1945 forms part of the so-called ‘Dirty Dozen’ wristwatches made by 12 Swiss manufacturers for the British army.

A gaoler’s ring?
09 July 2018This Tudor period gold finger ring with the initials RB was found by a detectorist on land to the west of Crewkerne in 2017.

Wellington’s favourite charger
09 July 2018A hairwork bracelet offered at auction was inscribed to a gold mount: From the Mane of the Charger Copenhagen which carried the Duke of Wellington 18 successive hours on the 18th June 1815, The Battle of Waterloo.

HG Murphy’s masterwork
09 July 2018Woolley & Wallis is currently selling across a number of sales 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.

The nine lives of Cartier’s creative genius
09 July 2018Legend has it that, while on safari in Africa with her lover and employer Louis Cartier, Jeanne Toussaint spotted a panther and immediately exclaimed: “Onyx, diamonds, emeralds – a brooch!” The Cartier range of feline jewels was born.

Bronzed in London: sculptures take centre stage as heat rises during capital’s big sales week
09 July 2018Important works of European sculpture were stars of the London auction season’s highpoint last week.

Dark Lord and Skipperera star in niche market
09 July 2018As the market develops, some of the ‘secondary’ niche Swiss brands have entered the mainstream collecting arena. The Bonhams (25% buyer’s premium) Fine Watches and Wristwatches sale on June 20 offered a range of 46 Heuers from a single-owner private collection.

Zimmermann revival
09 July 2018This Egyptian revival gold, enamel and gem-set collar necklace below established a new record for the jewellery of Marie Zimmermann (1879-1972) at Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey (25% buyer’s premium) on June 10.

Hoffman clock strikes success in Rotterdam
02 July 2018Unmistakably the work of the Viennese avant-garde, this gem-set silver plated table clock sold for €205,000 (£186,000) at a recent sale held by the Rotterdam auctioneer Vendu Notarishuis.

Damaged Chinese vases still pack a punch at auction
02 July 2018Down but not out, a smashed Qing porcelain famille vase sold for an unexpected £94,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) at Adam Partridge in Macclesfield on June 28.

Early club from a cellar in Fife becomes £26,000 seller in Lewes
02 July 2018This hitherto unknown iron – part of select group of perhaps a dozen very early golf clubs from the late 17th or early 18th century – emerged at Gorringe’s in Lewes on June 26.

Horlicks’ Mouseman furniture comes to auction
25 June 2018The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be sold at auction in Stansted Mountfitchet this autumn.

First Hours of Aristophil sell-off
25 June 2018The mammoth disposal of the Aristophil collections of historic manuscripts began last week with a premium-inclusive €17.6m series of seven June auctions offered over four days at Drouot (June 15 and 18-20).