Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Bountiful Burmantofts collection emerges at Salisbury auction
05 June 2017Earlier this year Woolley & Wallis decorative arts specialist Michael Jeffery received a call out of the blue from the family of a recently deceased collector in the south of England.
Asian art hammer highlights at regional sales
05 June 2017A selection of stand-out results from auctions around the UK.
Christie's South Kensington to hold final sale on July 19
05 June 2017Christie’s UK chairman says the closure of Christie’s South Kensington, the largest upheaval in the firm’s recent history, “has been a very painful decision for all but for the long-term health of the business it is right”.
Asian art textiles: the uncut market for court dress
05 June 2017For the most important ceremonies and rituals, high-ranking Chinese officials along with the royal family would don the chao fu or full court dress. At the Qing court a whole range of garments and paraphernalia were associated with the chao fu – a hat, collar, necklace, girdle and boots – but the most important were the chao pao and jifu, the court robes. Their use was restricted to high-ranking officials and persons.
Christie’s restructuring: a case study
05 June 2017Christie’s Chinese art department – shorn of the experience of Jeremy Morgan and Pedram Rasti (long-standing heads of department in both South Kensington and King Street who have recently left the firm) – will be led by Marco Almeida as international senior specialist and Kate Hunt, former head of sale at Christie’s South Kensington.
Asian art Jades: any colour as long as it’s white
05 June 2017By definition ruyi sceptres are highly auspicious objects, favoured for their shape and ornamentation which together represent the propitious expression ‘as you wish’.
Asian art Japanese: Tomatada shines in Katchen collection
05 June 2017The centrepiece of Bonhams’ Japanese offering on May 11 was the second part of the extraordinary collection of netsuke formed by US concert pianist Julius Katchen (1926-69) and his wife Arlette.
Christie’s South Kensington to close sooner than expected
31 May 2017Christie’s is closing its South Kensington saleroom earlier than expected. The final sale will take place in mid July and it will close its doors on July 29.
Walkabout in W8: decorators meet dealers
30 May 2017Where do antiques fit into current interior design thinking? We took three decorators on a whistle-stop tour of Kensington Church Street to gather their views on trends in furnishing with antiques and dealing with dealers.
Rhymney on right track
30 May 2017A lamp from a wagon that once travelled a 50-mile stretch of track linking the docks of Cardiff to the collieries of the south Wales valleys was hammered down in Bristol at £6300 (plus 18% buyer’s premium).
Summers Place Auctions - Right time, right place
30 May 2017The DNA of Summers Place Auctions remains firmly rooted in the bygone days of Sotheby’s regional empire. But, as the firm marks 10 years as a specialist auction house in Sussex, it is looking to new horizons...
Walkabout in W8: About the decorators
30 May 2017Meet the three decorators ATG took on its tour of Kensington Church Street to meet dealers.
Pick of the Week: Skeaping leaping to a new height in Mod Brit market
30 May 2017Dreweatts has set a new auction record for the 20th century British sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80). At Donnington Priory on May 24, this 2ft (60cm) pink marble carving, Female nude, right, signed and dated 1928, sold to Cork Street dealership Browse & Darby for £90,000 (£111,600 including premium).
Pick of the Week: early photographic instrument bought on BBC's Antiques Road Trip sells for £20,000 at Suffolk auction
22 May 2017A rare early photographic instrument – bought for a song by a member of the BBC’s Antiques Road Trip team – sold for £20,000 at Lacy Scott & Knight (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds on May 13.
ABA ‘Olympia’ fair will move to Battersea
22 May 2017Next month’s 'London International Antiquarian Book Fair' at the National Hall, Olympia on June 1-3 will be the last held at the West Kensington venue.
Chinese scroll painting gives Duke’s of Dorchester top regional auction price for Asian art
22 May 2017The top regional Asian art price at auction this season was reached by Duke’s of Dorchester on May 18 when Wu Guanzhong’s (1919-2010) scroll painting White Birches on Mount Chang Bai (Zhangbai) sold at £500,000 (plus buyer's premium).
Scroll down for £500,000 bid
22 May 2017Duke’s of Dorchester posted the top regional Asian art price of the season on May 18 when Wu Guanzhong’s (1919-2010) scroll painting White Birches on Mount Chang Bai (Zhangbai) sold at £500,000 (plus buyer’s premium).
eBay to introduce VAT payments to UK traders
18 May 2017Professional eBay sellers in the UK with turnover of more than £85,000 will be asked to pay VAT on their fees when the online marketplace restructures later this year.
Buyer found for Auctionata’s website and trademark in Germany
17 May 2017Berlin auction house Historia Auktionshaus has acquired the website and trademark of defunct German online firm Auctionata Paddle8 AG.
‘School of Rubens’ panel flies at Swiss Old Masters sale
15 May 2017Estimated at CHF9000-12,000, a panel painted in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) sold for CHF700,000 (£564,500) at Galartis SA in Crissier, Lausanne on May 5.