Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Glory days of a Gold Rush town reflected in a scarce photograph
16 January 2026This ambrotype of a California Gold Rush town sold for £1500, six times the top estimate, as part of the Winter Fine Sale at Hartleys (20% buyer’s premium) in Ilkley on November 26.
Carrick gunner and Thornycroft archer sculptures targeted in west London
16 January 2026A highlight of the sale of European Works of Art, Objects & Silver at Olympia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in west London was The Gunner by Scottish monumental sculptor Alexander Carrick (1882-1966).
Set of 12 Chinese export pictures portrays a production line of porcelain
09 January 2026A set of 12 Chinese export pictures depicting the manufacture and distribution of porcelain was among the highlights of a recent sale held by Nadeau’s in Windsor, Connecticut.
Bought for buttons, now worth £48,000
09 January 2026Bought for just £40 last year, two rare bronze buttons designed by Alberto Giacometti for Elsa Schiaparelli hammered for £48,000 at the latest Modern Decorative Art & Design sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge.
Penguin egg picked up by Ponting
09 January 2026An Adelie penguin egg collected by Herbert Ponting (1871-1935) on the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition came for sale in Nantwich on January 8.
Bridesmaid’s York Rose brooch rated all white by buyer
09 January 2026One of the eight York Rose brooches given by Prince Albert to the bridesmaids who attended his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 sold for £15,000.
'Exceptional' vases boast a Brighton Pavilion link bonus
09 January 2026This imposing pair of 3ft 8in (1.09m) high hexagonal form vases combine both early 19th century Chinese and later 19th century French craftsmanship.
Early Christmas cards deliver festive cheer for a surprised vendor
09 January 2026Prompted by the uniform penny post and the new printing process of chromolithography, the Victorian era was the heyday of the Christmas card.
Sale brimming full of character thanks to Doulton designs
09 January 2026Doulton figures and jugs depicting the famous and not-so-familiar include sought-after rarities
Kashmiri shawl was given by Victoria as a present
09 January 2026As ruler of an empire on which the sun never set, Queen Victoria adopted the Indian practice of giving Kashmiri shawls as gifts to visiting dignitaries and coming-of-age and wedding presents to her friends at court.
Dutch buyer secures another British microscope for his museum of science
05 January 2026A rare Georgian brass microscope by Edinburgh maker John Clark will join an important Dutch collection after its sale in the Cotswolds.
First edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland donated to Oxford University
05 January 2026The most important of only 23 known surviving copies of the first – and subsequently withdrawn – June 1865 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been given jointly to Christ Church Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries.
Do book collecting terms fox you? Pick up a Searle at auction
05 January 2026An original illustration for one of the most entertaining works on rare book collecting hammered for £15,000 to lead Mallams’ latest Modern Art & Design auction.
Pick of the week: Mamluk manuscript gallops to £150,000
05 January 2026An ‘exceptional and newly discovered’ Mamluk manuscript copy of an Arabic text on hippiatry (equine medicine) was the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s latest Islamic and Indian art sale in London.
Trade alert after masked men steal Guild of Handicraft jewellery
19 December 2025Police are appealing for information after many identifiable pieces of antique jewellery were stolen during a robbery in the Cotswolds.
A £31,000 Fabergé farmyard star brings animal magic to Macclesfield
19 December 2025The first day of the December 10-12 sale at Adam Partridge in Macclesfield, Cheshire, included a 2in (5cm) high Fabergé jewelled agate model of a cockerel or rooster.
Costume drama in a small case
19 December 2025So-called ‘talc pictures’ or ‘metamorphoses’ were fashionable amusements in European courts in the second half of the 17th century.
Happy birthday to James Joyce from Nora Barnacle
19 December 2025A recent sale of Books, Documents & Ephemera at Stride & Son in Chichester included this 3½ x 2½in (9 x 6cm) brass and enamel cigarette case.