Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Pick of the Week: Talismanic shirts lead to saleroom good fortune
30 April 2018Two finely executed Indian talismanic shirts made multi-estimate sums at Roseberys in south London.
Powerful bidding for Islamic Week stars at auction
30 April 2018Multi-estimate sums proved the norm among the star lots during London’s Islamic Week auction series.
Sterling performance for ‘Dymock’ candlesticks at auction
30 April 2018Estimated at £10,000-15,000, a pair of James II silver candlesticks sold at £62,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at the Woolley & Wallis silver sale in Salisbury.
Dutch scholar awarded prestigious bookseller prize for work on woodcuts from incunabula in the Low Countries
27 April 2018The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) has announced the winner of the 17th Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.
North Mymms contents sale tops £1.75m and posts best-ever sale for Sworders
23 April 2018The primary contents of North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire – including an important collection of European tapestries – provided Sworders with its best-ever sale last week.
Jewellery hammer highlights including Chaumet brooch in Shropshire
23 April 2018A selection of glittering items on offer in English auctions.
Appeal to trade after burglary of Chinese works of art taken from Bath museum
23 April 2018The Museum of East Asian Art was the victim of a daring raid by four masked men who stole rare artefacts from the Bath institution.
Kutchinsky colour shines through
23 April 2018Characterised by high-quality craftsmanship, a bold use of colour plus a love of whimsy, the menagerie of gem-set or enamel animal designs are particularly recognisable as signature Kutchinsky pieces.
Charles Voysey River Rug flows into auction
23 April 2018A hand-coloured design for Charles Voysey’s 'River Rug' surfaced at Lawrences of Crewkerne where it sold at £21,000 (plus premium).
Naming names, Scandinavian style
23 April 2018Unlike other European jewellers, where designers and makers were often shrouded in anonymity, the Georg Jensen Co promoted its craftspeople and encouraged them to become names in their own right.
Photogenic gems including Julia Margaret Cameron link
23 April 2018An old photo of a former owner and a memorial inscription will seldom add commercial value to a Victorian locket. However, the example by the Phillips Brothers of Cockspur Street offered by Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) in Oxford on March 21 carried the inscription 'Julia Hay Norman, Died 3rd October 1873'.
Pick of the Week: South Indian rarity spotted alongside Soloman stars
23 April 2018An 18in (45cm) figure of Shiva Vinadhara c.12th century – £220,000.
A taste of cool Britannia in NYC
23 April 2018“They were as bold, diverse, and brave as René Lalique and his peers had been in the 1900s, bucking convention and tradition to change the landscape of British jewellery.”
Sumptuous tapestries help country house auction to total a hefty £1.75m for Sworders
19 April 2018The primary contents of North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire – including a collection of European tapestries that have been at the property for over a century - have sold at auction for close to £2m.
Antiques dealer Simon Spero’s special exhibition – his own blue and white collection
16 April 2018Kensington Church Street dealer Simon Spero is to sell his personal collection of English blue and white porcelain at a special exhibition next month.
No rolling 100-year date for ivory ban
16 April 2018BADA has clarified a key element of the government’s proposals for a near-complete ivory ban – the stipulation that all items qualifying for the ‘rarest and most important of its type’ and portrait miniature exemptions must be 100 years old.
Appliance of science: New hallmarks scheme for contemporary bronzes launched to fight fakes
16 April 2018To address the increasing number of fakes, The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) has launched a new digital ‘hallmark’ for editioned bronzes.
Pick of the Week: Chinese bronze taken from Summer Palace sells for six figures at auction
16 April 2018A rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, sold for £410,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at the Canterbury Auction Galleries.
Glasgow art school key to stay in Scotland after Edinburgh auction
16 April 2018In the year of the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, Lyon & Turnbull has sold the very key used to open his design masterpiece, The Glasgow School of Art, in 1899.
A time of war
16 April 2018Military issue watches, particular those from the Second World War, are bringing ever stronger prices.