Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Glasses ‘used by Mary Lincoln’ on fateful night come to auction in Essex
09 September 2019Could these be the opera glasses used by Mary Lincoln on the night her husband was assassinated? Colchester auction house Reeman Dansie will offer them for sale on September 24-25 with a guide price of £10,000-20,000.
Five lots to watch at auction this week including a Snow White animation, medieval bowls and a gold armorial ring
09 September 2019With estimates from £200-25,000, here are four previews from upcoming sales this week.
Cartoon for ‘Punch’, novelty smoking set and leather jewellery case – six auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes in the last week
06 September 2019ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week includes a novelty smoking set that fetched 40-times estimate, a cartoon for 'Punch' that took 20-times estimate and a leather jewellery case that made over 30-times estimate.
Bonhams returns to Oxford with furniture sale
02 September 2019Bonhams’ Oxford office is to reopen as a saleroom for two auctions in the autumn season.
Martinware on offer from family patron of the potters
02 September 2019Maidenhead auction house Dawson’s is to sell a collection of Martinware on behalf of descendants of an important patron of the Southall pottery.
Five sales to watch at auction this week including vast collections of pedal cars, hole punches and Ysart glass
02 September 2019With estimates from £200-15,000, here are five previews of upcoming sales this week.
Wemyss revisited in spotlight on Scotland’s most famous pottery
02 September 2019Edinburgh auction spotlights the current market for the wares of Scotland’s most famous pottery.
Frog salt cellars leap to great result Down Under
02 September 2019Many of the high prices achieved at last week’s ‘celebrity’ sale titled Bob Hawke & Blanche d’Alpuget: Mementos, Curiosities, Art and Design reflected the impact of souvenir hunters, anxious to own a reminder of Australia’s former prime minister who died earlier this year. But not all of them.
17th century table casket, LS Lowry lithograph and a ‘virtuous’ 19th century board game – six auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes in the last week
30 August 2019ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week includes a 19th century board game designed to deter juvenile minds “from pursuing the dangerous paths of vice”. It sold over 15-times estimate in Bath.
Bought for £1 in a charity shop, will Chinese vase be worth £80,000?
26 August 2019Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.
Pick of the week: American saleroom signals the way to English creamware
26 August 2019Some of the rarest and most desirable of all English creamware jugs were those made for the American market. One of them, titled Signals at Portland Observatory, sold for $4400/£3600 (plus premium) at the Bourgeault-Horan auction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Power of Scotland – spotlight on British silver produced north of the border
26 August 2019Of the 24 silversmiths known to have worked in the Aberdeenshire town of Banff from the 17th century until the trade died out in the mid-1800s, William Scott the Elder is the first whose name is recorded.
How ‘duty dodgers’ can pay their way at auction today
26 August 2019The term ‘duty dodgers’ is applied to pieces that were not sent for assay during the period 1720-58 when a steep tax was placed on silver. Silversmiths had a variety of methods of escaping this tax – including transposing marks from small articles to large or overstriking marks from older pieces.
Silver hammer highlights: including a table snuff box with an Indian Mutiny connection
26 August 2019A selection of stand-out auction results for silver in recent sales.
Silver auction previews: including a George V bowl modelled on the Winchester measure
26 August 2019A selection of silver lots coming up in the salerooms.
Famed dynasty detailed in diaries and journals
26 August 2019An archive relating to a once famous Suffolk dynasty comes for sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on September 10-11. The diaries, journals and letters of Lady Ann Cullum (1807-75) of Hardwick House near Bury St Edmunds form part of a Fine Interiors sale.
