Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
New French museum buys 17th century scientific instruments at auction
15 April 2026A new museum currently under construction just outside Paris has made two purchases at Hôtel Drouot this month.
Item revealed to be not a stool but a headrest puts in a spirited performance at auction
10 April 2026Kali shaped from local hardwoods, typically ironwood, were traditionally made by canoe-builders in the South Sea islands.
Pocket globes put the world to rights
10 April 2026Two of London’s salerooms sold Georgian pocket globes on March 12. Both hammered well above what proved modest estimates.
Second watch said to have been found on body of Titanic victim John Jacob Astor emerges at auction
10 April 2026Two years after a Wiltshire auction house set a record for Titanic memorabilia with “the watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor”, another timekeeper making precisely the same claim is coming to market.
Alice in slumberland: bed once belonging to Alice Liddell comes to auction
10 April 2026Alice Liddell was just a 10-year-old living in Oxford in the 1860s when Charles Dodgson – better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll – spun a fantastical tale to her and her two sisters Edith and Lorina on a summer afternoon by the Thames.
Pick of the week: Mickey and Minnie get on their bike to a German auction
10 April 2026The Mickey and Minnie Mouse motorcycle made by Tippco, c.1932, is the most desirable of all the German tinplate clockwork toys from the immediate pre-war period.
Rediscovered portraits by Romney and Raeburn emerge at auctions this spring
10 April 2026Mark the diary for the appearance of two notable British portraits at auction in Paris and in Cambridge.
Corkscrews and much more in a town surrounded by vineyards
10 April 2026An interview with antiques dealer Jeremy Astfalck of The Old Corkscrew, Franschhoek
Arts & Crafts northern exposure: woodwork made in Cumbria and Yorkshire – auctioned in Cumbria and Yorkshire
10 April 2026Lake District cabinetmaker and woodcarver Ernest John Oldcorn trained at Gillows of Lancaster but he found his niche after joining the Arthur W Simpson workshop.
Cape Town connects the world
10 April 2026Single-owner collection reflects both the port’s position linking trade routes and the artisans it attracted
Market that relies on a stand-out selection of South African Modernists such as sought-after Stern
10 April 2026The South African auction scene is heavily dependent on the work of the handful of painters who played a key role in shaping the nation’s art in the first half of the 20th century.
Chinese cushion cover came from British military source
10 April 2026The March 3-4 sale at Chorley’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, was topped by a good example of Qing imperial needlework: a yellow ground silk and metal thread cushion cover.
Gallery visit showcased in art sells at auction house after international bidding contest
10 April 2026Nine potential buyers from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and the US engaged in a bidding battle for a 17th century Dutch genre painting in Lille.
Indian auction house expands to London
02 April 2026Indian online-only auction house AstaGuru has expanded into the UK and set up home in west London.
‘Working archive’ of prints inspired Sorel
02 April 2026Roseberys’ Prints & Multiples auction on April 16 includes 56 lots from the collection of avant-garde artist Agathe Sorel (1935-2020) and her husband Gabor Sitkey, also a painter and textile designer.
Beatrix Potter letters reveal her love for antiques
02 April 2026Eighteen letters written by Beatrix Potter to an antiques dealer between 1933-43 come for sale in Nottingham this month.
Indian art continues to make headlines across the globe
02 April 2026A newly discovered prime period untitled work by Indian Modernist Akbar Padamsee (1928-2020) established a new house record for Roland Auctions in Glen Cove, New York, on March 28.
Roseberys auction house expands from south London with a Pimlico Road shop
02 April 2026South London auction house Roseberys will join the antiques and interiors shops in Belgravia this spring.