Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Pick of the week: Knives collection proves a cut above
10 July 2023An amazing penknife proved a cut above in a sale from the David Hayden-Wright collection of antique knives offered at west London saleroom Olympia Auctions.
No fanfare as ivory netsuke sets a new record
10 July 2023A new auction record for netsuke – over three times the previous high – has been set in France.
A Fabergé magnifying glass is among five lots to watch
10 July 2023With estimates from £300, here are five previews of upcoming items.
Tempting machine that is full of socks appeal
10 July 2023The Harrison semi-automatic pedestal knitting machine was designed c.1900 for producing rib socks.
Very early TV set that’s a must for connoisseurs
10 July 2023The HMV 900 was one of first television receivers designed by the Marconi-EMI Television Company, the firm that also provided the technology for Britain’s first television service.
Rare Ruhmkorff survivor ready for sale
10 July 2023Induction coils used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current, are often called Ruhmkorff coils although studied by Michael Faraday in the 1830s
You’ve got the hook: Maori jewellery
10 July 2023The best-known type of Maori jewellery is the pounamu (greenstone) hei tiki pendants, the figural carvings representing ‘the first man’ that were typically worn by women.
Auctioneer Burns takes golf top spot in golf challenge
10 July 2023Perth auctioneer Nick Burns of Lindsay Burns & Company was the winner of this year’s Scottish Auctioneers & Art Dealers golf tournament.
Hello, can I speak to a royal please?
10 July 2023A telephone exchange removed from Buckingham Palace during refurbishment 25 years ago sold in west London for £3000.
Rationality and religion combined
10 July 2023Like many scientists and eminent thinkers of the time, Isaac Newton was also a devout Christian who thought deeply about religious matters, as a manuscript sold at auction in New York reveals.
Take a peek before ‘glass and brass’ microscopes appear
10 July 2023A lucernal microscope is a rare survivor.
It must be one of the Ladds
10 July 2023This lacquered brass and mahogany Hawksbee-type double valve vacuum pump is signed to the recessed silvered plate Ladd, Penton Place, Walworth.
The oarsman who outraged Henley and a rower later mountaineer
10 July 2023A group of Victorian rowing memorabilia generated plenty of bidding at Claydon Auctioneers (19.5% buyer’s premium) in Buckinghamshire on June 25-26.
Homemade receiver ‘picked up news of the Titanic disaster’
10 July 2023Interest in wireless telegraphy, that was piqued when Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent a message from Poldhu, Cornwall to St John’s, Newfoundland in 1910, prompted many amateurs to build and develop their own sets based on the ‘Coherer’ principle for sending and receiving Morse code.
Butterflies create a bit of a flutter in the saleroom
10 July 2023The 40 trays of British butterflies in this handsome mahogany four-section cabinet by JJ Hill & Son of London were collected by Geoffrey Alfred Cole.
Gold ring unearthed at former abbey site
10 July 2023This 15th century gold ring, set with a rhomb-shaped table-cut sapphire, is engraved with lilies and other flowers issuing from a crescent bowl.
One-off pocket barometer altimeter was used for mining
10 July 2023This brass cased mining aneroid pocket barometer altimeter, c.1885, was almost certainly a one-off order or commission.
Print includes a Wimbledon tennis pioneer
10 July 2023A Tennis Match at Manchester is a very rare print marking one of the first British tennis tournaments.
Beefy sells memorabilia from when his heroics with bat and ball helped to win the 1981 Ashes
08 July 2023England cricketer Sir Ian Botham is offering memorabilia from his international and club career at an auction on July 15.