Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Previews: issue 2582
27 February 2023A selection of 11 upcoming lots available at UK and Irish auctions.
Deep pockets for the Fifty Fathoms
27 February 2023The Fifty Fathoms watch was born in the 1950s from the encounter between the Swiss firm Blancpain (by then using the legal trading name Rayville) and two French naval officers, Capt Robert Maloubier and Lt Claude Riffaud.
Make a bone call when bidding for Chinese jiaguwen
27 February 2023The Shang period (c.1600-1045BC) is the first of China’s many epochs from which written documents survive.
Watches: Why Breitling was ‘the smartwatch of its time’
27 February 2023The firm established in Switzerland nearly 140 years ago achieved many ‘firsts’ in chronograph production. ATG considers the market for some of the most famous references from the Navitimer to the ‘Thunderball’ Top Time
Stuart period signet ring stars in our pick of five auction highlights
24 February 2023ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes a 17th century gold signet ring that more than doubled its estimate in Essex.
Uruguayan artist Juan Manuel Blanes rides off to an auction record at Toovey’s
20 February 2023A rediscovered work by ‘Uruguay’s most important painter’ Juan Manuel Blanes (1830- 1901) has sold for a record £1.15m in West Sussex.
Annual auction totals: Dreweatts retains top spot as market readjusts after the pandemic impact
20 February 2023In the first test of the post-Covid era many of the UK’s top salerooms posted strong figures for art, antiques and luxury items across the calendar year.
Pick of the week: Bidders battle for Naples Nelson porcelain
20 February 2023Elements of an important Naples porcelain service made after the Battle of the Nile have resurfaced at auction in the US.
A rare 16th century livery cupboard is among five lots to watch
20 February 2023With estimates from £800, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.
A world coming into focus thanks to Negretti & Zambra
20 February 2023Early stereoscopic images featured in the collection of a dealer curious about how technology transformed life in Victorian times
Fine body of work from a French anatomist and naturalist
20 February 2023The French anatomist and naturalist Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880) set up a workshop making very accurate human and veterinary anatomical models.
Weather forecast all in one
20 February 2023Dreweatts in Newbury has for sale this fine Victorian ‘weather station’ with a full provenance and a portrait of its former owner.
Previews: issue 2581
20 February 2023A selection of 13 upcoming lots available at UK and Irish auctions.
White Star Line cup and saucer star in our pick of six auction highlights
17 February 2023ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes a Spode cup and saucer with a Titanic connection that made six times estimate at Richard Winterton.
Spink tops coins and medals table
13 February 2023The record business enjoyed by London’s coin auction houses during Covid lockdowns largely continued last year.
Pick of the week: Family archive shines light on abolition movement
13 February 2023A cache of material from descendants of the Starbuck family, a Quaker whaling family influential in both the abolitionist movement and the founding of Nantucket as a whaling centre, was the highlight of Catherine Southon’s sale on February 8.
A postcard from poet Philip Larkin is among five lots to watch
13 February 2023With estimates from £300, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.
‘Queen Victoria post box’ at £14,500 is something to write home about
13 February 2023The sale at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) in Teddington on January 28 included what was marketed as ‘Queen Victoria’s post box’.
Hook a Moser fish vase
13 February 2023The sale at Clark’s Auction Company in California on February 19 includes this Moser enamelled glass fish vase.
Tales of Timbuktu-born prince and a 116-year-old historian
13 February 2023This single-page letter offered on January 19 by Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) tells the remarkable story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori (1762-1829).