Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
What closure of CSK means for dealers, London and the regions
18 March 2017Much will depend on what the plan is for King Street and for the firm’s online-only sales (a growing but small fragment of the Christie’s business totalling £49.8m last year).
Bonhams: gold box by Hancock
18 March 2017The engraved inscription to this gold box reads: A Common Council holden in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the City of London on Thursday the 7th day of April 1864 resolved that the honorary freedom of this city be presented to General Giuseppe Garibaldi on the occasion of his visit to this country as a tribute of respect to the most generous, brave and disinterested of patriots.
Pick of the Week: Royalist rarity takes £20,000
18 March 2017Estimated at £1500-2000, this rare English delft dish sold for £20,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 8.
Guidance as all rosewood joins CITES list
18 March 2017European CITES management authorities published a nine-page guidance report last week following a decision to protect all species of rosewood.
Survey of the scientific sale scene
18 March 2017Tennants’ (20/18.5/17.5% buyer’s premium) sale of Scientific and Musical Instruments, Cameras and Tools on February 17 included a rare brass altazimuth theodolite, signed by London instrument makers Heath and Wing. Estimated at just £300-400, it sold in its original box together with wooden tripod at £10,000.
Questions raised over methodology of report that calls for changes to ivory regulation
14 March 2017A report out today (March 14) calls for "significant structural changes" to the laws governing the sale of ivory in the UK but trade bodies have queried its methodology, citing low response rates.
Art and antiques industry reacts to impending closure of Christie’s South Kensington
13 March 2017The news of the impending closure of Christie’s South Kensington may not have come as a great surprise but, without doubt, its demise seems like an ‘end of an era’ moment.
Alert sounds over ‘duty dodger’ silver whistles
11 March 2017SILVER boatswain whistles from a collection pulled from sale by the Antique Plate Committee nine years ago have resurfaced on the market.
Six-figure Chinese results in the regions
11 March 2017A LARGE wucai fish jar sold for a house-record £810,000 at Fellows’ auction in Birmingham on February 27.
Fabergé cutlery returns to Harrogate
11 March 2017A BOXED set of Fabergé cutlery, together with an archive detailing its royal history, sold for £20,000 at Christchurch, Dorset, auction house Bulstrodes on March 2.
Pick of the Week: British radical loved by the Americans
11 March 2017ESTIMATED at £800-1200, this 5in (12.5cm) high creamware mug decorated with a portrait of the radical politician and journalist John Wilkes (1725-97) sold for £10,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium) to lead the ceramics and glass sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on February 28.
Tourist souvenir or tribal art rarity? Swiss art dealer’s Easter Island figure sells for £95,000 at Berkshire auction
09 March 2017There was some good old fashioned saleroom drama at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions in Newbury yesterday when a moai kavakava style figure, estimated to bring just £400-600, sold at £95,000. The buyer in Berkshire was from Australia.
COMMENT: Closure of mid-market pioneer Christie’s South Kensington is end of an era
09 March 2017As the market changes, salerooms come and go. Few have come and are soon to go like Christie’s South Kensington. But the forces behind the impending demise of the once-trailblazing auction house have been in the works for some time.
Pick of the fair
04 March 2017ATG chooses a diverse selection of must-see pieces for the Maastricht connoisseur and buyer
Cultural bill creates confusion for dealers
04 March 2017THE Antiquities Dealers’ Association has asked the government to “produce satisfactory guidance” after a bill designed to tackle the looting and destruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones passed without amendments called for by the art and antiques trade.
Pick of the Week: East meets West for a £55,000 fish sausage
04 March 2017THIS Japanese lacquer coffer from the Momoyama or early Edo period (1590-1625) was sold by Charterhouse of Sherborne on February 17 for £55,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium).
Sleeping bugle awakens at £140,000
04 March 2017Estimated at £50-100, this Maori flute sold for £140,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at John Nicholson’s of Haslemere on February 23.
The 175 pairs of eyes on Maastricht
04 March 2017As attribution issues continue to beset the art market, TEFAF’s vetters are placed under the spotlight as much as the objects they assess. Roland Arkell speaks to current chairman of vetting, Henk van Os
Harrogate museum acquires Fabergé cutlery set for £20,000 at auction
03 March 2017Dealer Wartski has bought a boxed set of Fabergé cutlery at auction for the Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate.
Porcelain 'paradise' found at Haughton summer exhibition
02 March 2017New to the summer calendar this year is ‘A Collectors' Paradise,’ a multi-dealer selling exhibition held over the three floors of the Brian Haughton Gallery in St James’s.