Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
EBay introduces buyer’s fees on all sales
07 January 2025EBay has effectively placed a buyer’s premium on sales from private vendors with the introduction of its Buyer Protection scheme.
Della Robbia sets auction record in Salisbury sale
06 January 2025Some strong bids were achieved in 2024 for the best of the Della Robbia Pottery but none higher than the £14,000 tendered at Woolley & Wallis (plus 26% buyer’s premium) for a large plaque by Cassandra Annie Walker.
London Art Week festival calls it a day after 10 years
06 January 2025After 10 years, London Art Week (LAW) has folded. Citing changes in the UK capital’s art market and financial shortfalls, the board said the December showing of the twice-yearly festival of traditional art will be the last
Pick of the Week: St Patrick’s relic rings out in electrotype
06 January 2025During the 1860s the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) campaigned to have electrotypes made of important historic artefacts.
Rare memoir of ‘a man of color’ makes 10 times estimate in Gloucestershire sale
06 January 2025A scarce lifetime biography of the renowned pan-Africanist Paul Cuffee, found plenty of competition at a recent auction at Dominic Winter.
Harry Houdini King of Cards poster had been collected by Yorkshireman spellbound by magic
06 January 2025Erik Weisz (1864-1926) launched his monumental career as the illusionist Harry Houdini in 1891 as a specialist in card tricks.
Moore bronze comes out of Manhattan
06 January 2025A late but textbook bronze by Henry Moore (1898-1986) sold for $75,000 (£59,000) at a 145-lot sale held in New York by Auctions at Showplace (25% buyer’s premium).
Different time and place can deliver a different result in this fickle world of auctions
06 January 2025The auction market can be a fickle beast, as results for the same items offered on separate occasions sometimes show.
Birth tablets underline Lowestoft’s sense of belonging
06 January 2025Porcelain birth tablets with their roots in Suffolk are unique to the factory
Lowestoft Cannon Ball beaker and cover blasts away estimate
06 January 2025A recent weekly sale at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Lewes included an English porcelain rarity: a blue and white Cannon Ball pattern beaker and cover.
Dresser claret jug proved too pricey to produce in great number
06 January 2025The hugely versatile Christopher Dresser sold 37 different designs to the Sheffield firm of Dixon and Sons from 1879-82.
‘The quintessential connoisseur’s collection’ comes to auction
03 January 2025Lyon & Turnbull will sell the art collection of the banker and financier Bernard Kelly (1930-2022) in London on January 15.
Not quite a mouse stirring before Christmas… but certainly a rodent
30 December 2024‘Twas just 10 nights before Christmas when this ancient Egyptian faience figure of a rodent sold at Apollo Art Auctions in London.
Where bread meets oak: remarkable 17th century armchair emerges at Salisbury sale
30 December 2024This oak panelled back armchair can be firmly dated to the Commonwealth period.
Top quality lifts throne chairs to six figures at Singaporean auction
30 December 2024An exceptional pair of late Qing blackwood throne chairs sold for Sin$185,000 (£108,000) at Hotlotz (30% buyer’s premium) in Singapore.
Nelson memorabilia sails again thanks to second dedicated auction at Bonhams
30 December 2024Punchy prices result as demand for relics linked to the British naval hero remains evidently high
Napoleon may have been foiled in his wishes for exile but at least he enjoyed wine and fresh food
30 December 2024A pair of pistols that were presented by Napoleon just six weeks after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo hammered at £30,000 in Thomas Del Mar’s sale of Fine Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria held at Olympia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).
Find a tale of the famous Roxana at auction
30 December 2024First edition of Defoe’s final novel fought over by online bidders up to a hammer price of £16,000