Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell

Riding in with Carter provenance
06 November 2023This pair of Qianlong (1735-96) cloisonné standing lion dogs with riders came for sale at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) with a provenance to George Ann Brown Carter, wife of media scion Amon Giles Carter Jr (1919-82) of Fort Worth, Texas.

Scroll on Song in the Windy City
06 November 2023Chinese item was owned by dealer who ran famed store on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago

Baskets bring in the bidders
06 November 2023Japanese Contemporary crafts currently enjoy a stronger following than more traditional works of art.

Shi Lu picked out at $430,000
06 November 2023Estimated at $30,000-50,000, an ink and colour on paper hanging scroll by Shi Lu (1919-82) took a mighty $430,000 (£354,500) at the latest Bonhams (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) auction of Fine Chinese Paintings in New York.

Go fishing to catch a Prunella Clough work in Canada
06 November 2023It was in the early 1950s that Prunella Clough (1919-99) ‘found’ her subject matter after touring London’s industrial wastelands and factories.

Exquisite Chinese sleeper – but not in best condition
06 November 2023A textbook Chinese sleeper emerged at a recent sale held by Helmuth Stone (25% buyer’s premium): this 11in (29cm) cinnabar red lacquer circular box and cover.

Mystery painting unites two nobles
06 November 2023Doyle’s (26% buyer’s premium) sale of Old Master and 19th century Paintings & Drawings in New York on October 19 was topped by a 15th or 16th century Flemish School oil on panel portrait of a soldier.

Looking at the bigger picture: Goetz Valien monumental work
06 November 2023Highlights of the sale of Modern and Contemporary Art on November 16 at Clars in Oakland, California, will include works by Andy Warhol, the Latvian/American artist Raimonds Staprans, the American artist Gordon Onslow Ford and this monumental work by the Austrian artist Goetz Valien (b.1960).

The map where Mecca is centre of attention
30 October 2023A rare Islamic Mecca-centred world map, considered a masterpiece from Safavid Persia, will star in the Islamic and Indian Art sale at Bonhams.

Unbroken elephant bird egg is all it’s cracked up to be
30 October 2023The eggs of the extinct Aepyornis maximus or elephant bird are the largest of any known species.

Two 18th century samplers related to Robert Burns are among five lots to watch
30 October 2023With estimates from £200, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.

Moret on a rare visit outside France
30 October 2023A textbook 1900 oil by the French Impressionist Henry Moret (1856-1913) led the field at Clars (26% buyer’s premium) in Oakland, California, on September 14.

Phyllis Lucas Gallery's drawings and art come to auction in New York
30 October 2023On November 4, Roland Auctions in New York will offer the final part of a vast gallery inventory of original prints, lithographs, etchings and paintings.

Feuchere’s Satanic majesty attracts bids at Bonhams Los Angeles auction
30 October 2023A highlight of Bonhams’ (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) Home & Interiors sale on September 26 was this clock surmounted by a bronze cast of the Jean-Jacques Feuchere (1807-52) sculpture Mephistopheles or Satan.

Man of letters: correspondence from famous figures
30 October 2023A collection of correspondence penned by leading figures of the 20th century to an Oxford academic raised more than £20,000 for charity at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on October 10.

Heavyweight sums for ‘paperweights’
30 October 2023Charity donation from the collection of the man who brought Woolworths to the UK includes rare Tiffany vases.

Napoleon portrait takes more than 10-times estimate at US auction
30 October 2023On the third day of Austin Auction Gallery’s (22% buyer’s premium) September 22-24 sale this portrait of Napoleon hammered for $15,000 (£12,400) – a multiple of the estimate of $800-1200.

John Gould second edition served as fresh helping
30 October 2023Follow-up edition of a classic avian work was more or less a new publication thanks to extra research

Indian silver with a British touch at Californian auction
30 October 2023The September 24 sale at Fine Estate, Inc (23% buyer’s premium) in San Rafael, California, included this example of Anglo-Indian silver.

Silver collection from Angela Gross Folk comes to New Orleans auction
30 October 2023With her art collection dispersed through recent auction activity at Sotheby’s, Freeman’s and Toomey & Co, it is now time for the late Angela Gross Folk’s silver collection to come to market.