Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Drinking the profits – a brief history of wine antiques
25 March 2019Pouring wine at the table from a standardised machine-made bottle is a relatively new custom. For centuries before the Victorian era, wine was typically bought and stored in the barrel and decanted into bottles or jugs only before use at the table.
The right time to pull the cork
25 March 2019Wiltshire auction house Henry Aldridge & Son is offering, across a series of sales, a collection of more than 450 corkscrews. The vendor, buying for more than 40 years and particularly acquisitive at the peak of the market in the 1990s, owned some great rarities with several early models already topping five figures.
What lots caught bidders’ eyes in the last week? Six auction highlights including a World Cup medal, George Formby’s ukulele, and a Lucie Rie bowl
22 March 2019ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week across the UK.
Online record for Sotheby’s as economist Friedrich von Hayek’s Nobel prize medal brings major bidding
22 March 2019A new record for any item sold in an online-only sale at Sotheby’s was set when the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science awarded to Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1982) sold for £950,000.
Motoring memorabilia originally owned by Bentley’s founder to be exhibited at Bonhams in London
21 March 2019For just one day in April, Bonhams New Bond Street saleroom will host an exhibition in celebration of the centenary of the legendary car marque Bentley.
Pick of the week: Rarities point to the mystery Compass factory
18 March 2019Three models from an English porcelain factory about which almost nothing is known surfaced for sale in East Sussex last week.
The £14,000 folk art shop display certainly worth a butcher’s
18 March 2019The exact function of carved and painted wood butcher’s shop dioramas is uncertain.
Ice pick carried by geologist on Captain Scott's South Pole expedition sells for £22,000 at Cambridge auction
18 March 2019The ice pick carried by geologist Frank Debenham (1883-1965) during the doomed Terra Nova British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 sold for £22,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Cheffins earlier this month. The estimate was just £200-400.
Viscountess Astor’s aquamarine jewel sparkles in Newbury
18 March 2019An impressive Edwardian aquamarine and diamond brooch with a provenance to the first lady to take her seat as an MP in the UK sold for £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at auction this month.
Lewes enjoys a Derby day
18 March 2019If the 1970s and 80s are remembered as a heyday of English porcelain collecting it is because of enthusiasts such as Dr Dennis G Rice.
English and European ceramics: A new frontier
18 March 2019A month before the emergence of three Compass factory figures in Lewes, the eighth and ninth recorded pieces by America’s earliest-known porcelain maker were offered for sale in Salisbury.
Spotting rare red Chelsea squirrels in Exeter
18 March 2019Rare examples of early English porcelain are still capable of remarkable sums.
What lots caught bidders’ eyes in the last week? Six auction highlights including a Wedgwood vase, a 1968 The Doors tour poster and Italian marble sculptures
15 March 2019ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week.
Star Wars action figure prototype comes to auction
14 March 2019A small piece of Star Wars action figure history comes for sale at Vectis Auctions in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees next month.
Bouguereau’s 20ft painting – Masterly example of French Academic painting to be offered at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale
13 March 2019Sotheby’s is to offer what it deems “the most important work of William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s celebrated career” as part of the Impressionist & Modern art evening sale in New York on May 14.
One of London’s oldest charities to sell contemporary art collection to raise funds
12 March 2019Contemporary art from the collection of one of London’s oldest charities went on view last night ahead of Lyon & Turnbull’s inaugural Modern Made auction this month.
What next for Brexit? While we wait, can you spot the 12 Brexit-related images on this Weeping Willow Brexit plate
12 March 2019As we approach a crunch vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a no-deal result is still a possibility – so too the prospect of an extension to the Article 50 process beyond the March 29 deadline.
Bonhams introduces 27.5% premium threshold to "reflect the cost of bringing objects to global auctions”
11 March 2019Auction house Bonhams has raised its buyer’s premium levels, adding a new threshold of 27.5% on the first £2500/$3000 of the hammer price.
Miniature John Constable drawings deliver a big result at Chiswick Auctions
11 March 2019Two previously unpublished ink sketches by John Constable (1776 -1837) excelled at Chiswick Auctions’ latest British & European Fine Art sale.
Pick of the week: Sumptuous marquetry table cabinet makes its mark at Fonsie Mealy auction
11 March 2019Although catalogued as 18th century, this marquetry table cabinet – sold for a multi-estimate sum in Ireland last week – is more probably late 16th or early 17th century.