Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Courvoisier portrait watches produced for Ottoman market
24 November 2025Philippe Auguste Courvoisier (1803-73), a member of the famed Courvoisier family of Swiss watchmakers, specialised in the production of watches with portraits of 19th century royalty, such as Queen Victoria, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte or, in the case of watches sold in London and Stuttgart, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I.
Jean Rousseau’s £62,000 tulip bud
24 November 2025Jean Rousseau (1606-84) came from a renowned watchmaking family that settled in Geneva, the cradle for prosecuted French Protestants in the 1630s.
Elkanah Settle’s heartfelt, personal tribute to (insert name here)
24 November 2025‘Settle bindings’ are the name given to a small number of surviving books published between c.1700-23 by Elkanah Settle (1648-1724).
Watches that won the Battle of Trafalgar
24 November 2025Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar come for sale next month.
Jewellery sales bring good cheer ahead of festive season
22 November 2025Auctions with half an eye on the gift-giving season proliferate throughout late November and early December.
Nelson, Hardy and Collingwood watches 'worn at the Battle of Trafalgar' emerge at Spink auction
21 November 2025Pocket watches owned by Horatio Nelson, Thomas Hardy and Cuthbert Collingwood and consulted throughout the Battle of Trafalgar, are coming for sale next month.
Anne Clark discoveries underline market strength
17 November 2025The sale of Chinese and other Asian Works of Art at Semley Auctioneers in Shaftesbury, Dorset, included the largest known group of works by the artist Mrs H Clark.
Outstanding Irish furniture from Mississippi Rococo collection comes back to the market
17 November 2025Important Irish mahogany furniture returned to market on November 11 when Brunk Auctions in North Carolina sold the so-called Mississippi Rococo collection of Jerold D Krouse.
Arts & Crafts collector Ray Leigh's treasured items come to auction in Gloucestershire
17 November 2025On November 25, Gloucestershire auction house Chorley’s is selling the personal collection of Ray Leigh (1928-2025), one of the more significant figures in post-war British design.
Eye-catching lover's eye ring was not necessarily for love
17 November 2025Lovers’ eyes became a la mode from c.1790 and remained fashionable in the courts and affluent families of England, Russia, France and North America until the early 1830s.
Gold rush memento from Australia offered in Birmingham
17 November 2025The gold rush that followed the discovery of significant deposits in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851, was a catalyst for the first colonial jewellery expressing an Australian identify.
Shore thing: Designer Norman Grant inspired by the Scottish coast
17 November 2025Norman Grant, a student of David Hodge at Gray’s School of Art, began to design and make jewellery from his garden shed in the late 1960s.
Churchill fan wins a saleroom V for victory contest
17 November 2025This small silver ‘V for Victory’ pendant made by the London firm of John Pinches Medallists for Cartier London is engraved Winston Churchill 1951-1955.
Brooch on offer was given to bridesmaids at a royal wedding
17 November 2025One of the eight York Rose brooches given by Prince Albert (later George VI) to the bridesmaids who attended his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in 1923, will be offered at Noonans in Mayfair on November 25.
Syrie Maugham’s chic sophistication shines through
17 November 2025Newbury auction house Dreweatts (27% buyer’s premium) held a sale last month titled Syrie Maugham: A Family Collection, offering items from the interior designer and her descendants.
Isaac Newton's ‘greatest intellectual stride’ strolls into a Swiss saleroom
17 November 2025The books sale at Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich on September 17 was topped at SwFr250,000 (£237,250) by a first edition of the book Einstein described as “perhaps the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make”.
Antiques Roadshow vase stars in saleroom at £125,000
17 November 2025The renewed fashion for ancient bronzes during the Qing period reflected a confluence of scholarly interest, artistic expression and political strategy.
Javanese please: Items from the Indonesian island’s true golden age
17 November 2025Jewellery shows great artistic and technical sophistication that catches the eyes of collectors
Lady Joceline’s tiara on offer in Dublin
17 November 2025This late Victorian diamond tiara set with old mine, old European and old cut diamonds comes for sale at Adam’s in Dublin on December 2 by descent from Dermot Chichester, 7th Marquess of Donegall (1916-2007).