Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell

Reminder of Rennie Mackintosh’s Suffolk sojourn
18 December 2023A group of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) watercolours and drawings were sold on behalf of the Glasgow Art Club at Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) Design since 1860 sale in Edinburgh.

Collector Interview: Dedicated to the etchings of the Detmold twins
18 December 2023Based on his own 50-year collecting odyssey, Iain MacPhail has privately published a hardback catalogue raisonné of the etchings created by the prolific Victorian and early 20th century book illustrators Charles Maurice and Edward Julius Detmold. Here he talks to ATG about his collecting passion.

Bidders display passion for a Holy Land panel
18 December 2023Mother of pearl and olivewood devotional objects were made in Jerusalem in large quantities as tourism to the Holy Land took off in the late 19th and early 20th century.

McWilliam sculpture reflects troubled times in Northern Ireland
18 December 2023A bronze from Frederick Edward McWilliam’s (1909-92) Women of Belfast series of sculptures sold for £37,000 at Halls (24% buyer’s premium) on December 6.

English table clock stars in our pick of five auction highlights
15 December 2023ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes an extremely rare ebony veneered English table clock signed for Ambrose Gardner that more than doubled its estimate at auction.

Indian and Egyptian travel photo album takes sensational £135,000
11 December 2023An impressive result emerged at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood on December 5 when a travel album titled The Ramblings and Adventures of an Indian Officer was knocked down at £135,000.

Pick of the week: Sculpture by 3D printing pioneer soars above estimate at Chiswick Auctions
11 December 2023It was around 1860 that the trained artist François Willème (1830-1905) began to experiment with photography as a way to create sculpture.

Ashbee name is key to piano case appeal
11 December 2023A recently rediscovered version of one of the best-known Guild of Handicraft designs is up for sale at Sworders.

Banksy screenprint with personal dedication is among five lots to watch this week
11 December 2023With estimates from £1000, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.

Malczewski: Polish painter with a strong sense of self
11 December 2023Trained at the Krakow School of Fine Arts as well as the Paris École des Beaux Arts, Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) is credited for the rise in popularity of symbolism in late 19th and early 20th-century Poland.

Brilliant minds Leibniz and Wotton bring brilliant price
11 December 2023Letter from German mathematician to English scholar takes £14,000 in Edinburgh saleroom

Previews: issue 2622
11 December 2023Our selection of lots from seven upcoming UK and Irish auctions

Sale day is May day for this German beaker
11 December 2023The small German beakers known as monatsbecher (‘month beakers’) were made in sets of a dozen: one for each month of the year.

Eye-witness account of Captain Cook’s death
11 December 2023Held by the same private New England family since 1792, a copy of 'A Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean' complete with its map came for sale at Bonhams Skinner (28/26/20% buyer’s premium).

Copeland dinner service stars in our pick of five auction highlights
08 December 2023ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes a hand painted ornithological dinner service that featured in the famous Lowther Castle sale in 1947.

An Etruscan Revival micro-mosaic brooch is among five lots to watch
04 December 2023With estimates from £400, here are five previews of upcoming items.

Shipshape $7000 surprise
04 December 2023A group of letters sent from a clipper ship captain in Shanghai during the Second Opium War (1856-60) to his sons in the Charlestown area of Boston resounded with bidders at Merrill’s Auctioneers (21% buyer’s premium) in Williston, Vermont on November 3.

Presentation copies with a special touch
04 December 2023Pictured here are two fine 19th century presentation copies that, unexpectedly, topped sales in South Cerney and Cambridge in October.

Collection furnished a house sited a stone’s throw from the Rijksmuseum
04 December 2023Although originally trained as a goldsmith, Dirck Van Rijswijck (1596-1679) developed his own characteristic style using less rarefied material.

Bugatti’s Breguet clock races away to take £170,000
04 December 2023An exceptional silver Breguet hump-backed carriage clock commissioned by car maker Ettore Bugatti topped Bonhams’ latest Fine Clock Sale.