Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Pick of the Week: Back after 11 months locked in an icy prison
18 February 2017THE appeal of this 5 x 7in (13 x 17cm) watercolour lies not in its technical skill but in its subject matter and the name of the amateur artist: the explorer Sir George Back (1796-1878). Although it is neither dated nor inscribed, this hitherto unknown sketch shows Back’s ship, the converted bomb vessel HMS Terror, stranded in the pack ice of the ‘Frozen Strait’ during the long Arctic winter of September 1836 to July 1837. The expedition had intended to map the last sections of the uncharted coast of North America.
Pick of the Week: Crime, punishment and phrenology
11 February 2017VICTORIAN plaster cast heads of British criminals were not simply macabre souvenirs. Most were created post-mortem as research for the pseudoscience of phrenology – the study of the size and shape of the brain and skull to determine personality.
Before and after views of a $5.1m Rubens
11 February 2017WHEN it appeared for sale at Christie’s in Amsterdam in June 2015, the picture left was catalogued as ‘after Sir Anthony Van Dyck’.
Tokens prove to be sale favourites
11 February 2017Racehorse owner’s collection of tickets and passes is the finest at auction in living memory
Challenging 2016 as auction sales suffer at Christie’s
09 February 2017Christie’s posted total sales of £4bn in 2016, a decrease of 16% compared to the previous year and well down from the art market’s high watermark of £5.1bn in 2014.
Faker of Norman Cornish pictures sent to prison
04 February 2017A man from Sunderland who forged the work of local artist Norman Cornish (1919-2014) was jailed for three years and seven months last week.
Cameo corner: a cut above the rest
04 February 2017Part of a 2000-year-old tradition, neoclassical cameo collection shines at Knightsbridge sale
ART FROM A STONE
04 February 2017Bonhams’ director Jean Ghika talks to Roland Arkell about a fundamental change in the jewellery market – and what 2017 might hold for buyers and sellers
‘The most audacious print ever made’
04 February 2017THE highlight of Christie’s Old Master prints catalogue on January 25 – the first New York sale the auctioneer has held in this category for 15 years – was this monumental woodcut by Titian.
Auctionata files for insolvency
28 January 2017Troubled online auctioneer seeks new funding as investors circle around subsidiaries
Imperial sleeper – Chinese vase makes 150-times estimate at Somerset auction
26 January 2017Drawing spectacular bidding at Lawrences of Crewkerne, this rare Chinese altar vase was knocked down at over 150-times estimate at the Somerset saleroom’s latest fine art auction. It was thought to have been specially commissioned by the Qing court for ceremonial use in palaces and temples.
Irish porringer heads for home
21 January 2017Rare survivor from the Emerald Isle shines as it reappears after almost 50 years in Essex sale
Woolleys stays top of regional league table with seven-figure Benin sale
21 January 2017A SPECTACULAR private treaty sale of an icon of ethnographic art helped Woolley & Wallis retain its status as the UK’s leading regional saleroom in 2016.
Partridge vendor returns Turkish burial vessel
21 January 2017THIS week representatives of Adam Partridge, auctioneers and valuers in Macclesfield, visited the Turkish Embassy in London to oversee the return of a Bronze Age artefact from Anatolia.
A state of flux – situation normal
21 January 2017Ever-changing fairs scene in the Sunshine State is now further affected by venue closure
Pick of the Week: A profiteer of the South Sea Bubble
21 January 2017THIS remarkable ‘English School’ satirical oil is recorded in contemporary prints titled Lucifer’s New Row-Barge, a version of which is in the British Museum. It depicts Robert Knight (1675-1744), the cashier of the South Sea Company who in 1719 successfully negotiated with the government of the day to incorporate all the national debt into the South Sea Company. Knight greatly profited personally from this process – and the many bribes to MPs and peers he recorded in a famous green book – and bought an estate in Essex for £20,000.
Benin bronze helps Woolley & Wallis retain lead in regional sales league
20 January 2017A private treaty sale of a Benin bronze head helped Woolley & Wallis retain its status as the UK’s leading regional saleroom in 2016.
Bronze Age jug returned to Turkey
17 January 2017A Bronze Age artefact from Anatolia has been returned to Turkey after a ceremony at the Turkish Embassy in London.
Van De Velde’s Westerwald project brings £17,000
31 December 2016THIS stoneware vase (pictured right) designed by Henry Van De Velde (1863-1957) for Reinhold Hanke c.1902 was sold by Mallams in Oxford for £17,000 on December 8.
Pick of the Week: Rie price bowls over a record
31 December 2016THE market for Lucie Rie ceramics continues to thrive. A new auction high for the doyenne of the British studio pottery movement was posted by Phillips in New York on December 13 – the fourth occasion a record has been set in just two years.