Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
A £7500 toast to the Dutch East India Company
20 August 2018A valuation day find for Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium), this Dutch-engraved East India Company baluster goblet c.1760, took a multi-estimate £7500 in Evesham.
Ex-Bonhams specialists launch new saleroom in Los Angeles
20 August 2018Downtown Los Angeles has a new mid-market fine art auction house, formed by a group of ex-Bonhams specialists.
Pair to the ‘Bainbridge vase’ emerges at Sotheby’s
14 August 2018The pair to the famous ‘Bainbridge vase’ – knocked down at £43m in 2010 but later sold for half of that sum – is to come to market. Sotheby’s will sell the near identical vase, that has a century-long provenance, in Hong Kong in the autumn.
US and UK trade unite to oppose 25% tariff threat in Trump's trade war
13 August 2018Dealers and auctioneers in the US and UK are mobilising in the hope of removing works of art from the thousands of items caught up in the escalating US-China trade war.
Sotheby’s expands New York space by a third
13 August 2018Renovation project under way in Manhattan will provide ‘powerful marketing advantage for consignors’
Pick of the Week: Crane leaves them wanting Maw
13 August 2018The Shropshire pottery, Maw & Co of Jackfield, is best known for the mass production of earthenware tiles and architectural ceramics.
Shannon collection of jewellery comes toWoolley & Wallis auction
13 August 2018A major collection of late 19th and early 20th century jewellery amassed by a Buckinghamshire collector over half a century will come to auction this autumn.
New premises in Melbourne for Sotheby’s Australia
13 August 2018Sotheby’s Australia has moved to new premises in the ‘Paris End’ of Melbourne.
Comment: Trade is putting up a good fight against Trump’s tariff
13 August 2018The US-China trade war, previously the stuff of new technology, heavy industry and agribusiness, has now opened a new front: cultural heritage. The threat of a 25% tariff on imported Chinese art and antiques will soon be discussed in Washington, DC.
Ancient antiquities seized from dealer returned to Iraq after British Museum research
10 August 2018Eight Sumerian antiquities seized by the Metropolitan Police from a London dealer in 2003 are to be returned to Iraq after identification by the British Museum.
Sotheby’s latest figures show sales up but profit margins lower than expected
06 August 2018Sotheby’s made more sales but at lower margins in the first half of 2018 according to its latest financial results.
UK books trade on alert after US library theft
06 August 2018Rare books and prints valued at millions of dollars remain at large in the international market in the wake of a US library theft.
Pick of the Week: John Gibson terracotta sculpture emerges from house clearance
06 August 2018Part of the intake for a general sale, a terracotta sculpture by a protégé of Antonio Canova sold for £21,000 (plus premium) at Reeman Dansie in Colchester.
Guards at the Carmarthen sale forefront
06 August 2018A famous royal regiment was remembered at the Peter Francis (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Carmarthen.
Jonathan Pratt takes MD role at Dreweatts
23 July 2018Jonathan Pratt, among the best-known faces of the UK regional auction scene, is to leave Bellmans to become managing director of Dreweatts 1759.
Crude and rude proves a winning formula as Viz makes auction record
23 July 2018A new auction record for a copy of a Viz comic was set during The Comic Book Sale at Anderson & Garland of Newcastle.
Tea and coffee service showing taverns and peasant life serves up £6800 result
23 July 2018Not every Victorian silver tea and coffee service was sold for scrap in the great meltdown of 2011– when at one point the price reached almost £30 per oz.
Murphy pendant sparkles in Salisbury
23 July 2018Chosen as the front-cover illustration to Paul Atterbury and John Benjamin’s 'The Jewellery and Silver of HG Murphy' (2005), this gemset pendant also provided Woolley & Wallis’ latest Jewellery and Watches sale with its showcase lot.
Top quality counts in Dorchester auction
23 July 2018While good-quality but familiar Georgian silver such as entrée dishes, tureens and sauceboats estimated in the £6000-12,000 range met stiff resistance at Dorchester auction house Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) on June 28, two top-quality pieces made their money.
Long tongs pick up impressive result in Irish auction
23 July 2018These outsize tongs, below, proved the major surprise at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on June 17.