Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
The name’s Bondt, Jean-Thierry Bondt
15 May 2026The Fine Jewellery & Watches sale in Bellmans in Billingshurst on May 21 includes this Boucheron yellow guilloché enamel and brilliant cut diamond flower brooch.
Bowl ‘given by the Bonnie Prince during wanderings’ finds new home at English auction
15 May 2026An intriguing Jacobite relic was sold at a recent Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) auction in Nottingham.
Pistrucci: Like father, like daughter
15 May 2026Benedetto Pistrucci (1783-1855), who worked as chief engraver and chief medallist to the Royal Mint, had two daughters who he trained in gem engraving.
Happy days in Yorkshire
15 May 2026With so much gold and silver jewellery heading for the melting pot in recent months, Spicers (20% buyer’s premium) in Old Goole, East Yorkshire, was pleasantly surprised by the performance of this tiny 0.7g 9ct gold and enamel charm.
Lacloche bracelet sparkles at £90,000
15 May 2026Founded in Spain in 1875 by brothers Fernand, Jules, Léopold and Jacques, Lacloche Frères became one of the great French jewellers of the Art Deco period.
Focus on Murano includes Martens vase
15 May 2026London dealer Liliane Fawcett, who since 1984 has traded from Notting Hill as Themes and Variations, began acquiring Italian post-war glass just as the secondary market was forming.
Pink topaz and diamond brooch sets house record at Perthshire auction
15 May 2026Perth saleroom Lindsay Burns (22% buyer’s premium) posted a new house record with an exceptional piece of period jewellery at its latest three-day sale.
Cameo appearance for glyphic art among Salisbury’s jewels
15 May 2026Interest in glyphic art, that reached its collecting apogee during Grand Tour collecting, is resurgent once more.
A price to remember – spotlight on mourning
15 May 2026The grim mortality rate of 17th century Britain precipitated a taste for memento mori jewellery that reached its height of popularity in the early 1700s.
Hong Kong auctions get off to an auspicious start
08 May 2026Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s Asian Art Week was led by the earliest extant court painting by the Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766).
Descendant consigns two prime minister portraits to Essex auction
08 May 2026Portraits of the third and fourth prime ministers of Great Britain are among the highlights of a fine collection of British portraiture that comes for sale at Sworders on May 19.
Works with a licence to thrill: book collectors' first editions in demand at auction
08 May 2026Fine collection of British modern novels amassed over decades includes earliest editions with dust jackets
Quentin Blake originals bring back fond memories at auction
08 May 2026Arabel and her anarchic pet raven, Mortimer, were first introduced in 1974 on the children’s television show Jackanory.
Books, maps and prints auction previews
08 May 2026A selection of upcoming highlights at UK, US and European auctions
First days of the US and much more
08 May 2026Ahead of a very busy period for the trade, we kick off our guide to the events coming up with a London fair marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.
Unrecorded photograph of Oscar Wilde discovered at Gloucestershire auction
06 May 2026A seemingly unrecorded photograph of the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde taken during his time at Magdalen College, Oxford has been found by Gloucestershire auction house Dominic Winter.
Two auction records smashed in Islamic and Indian art with 14th century glass and 17th century scientific instrument
05 May 2026Two auction records were broken during the London spring series of Islamic and Indian art.
Victorian topaz girandole brooch takes top honours at Scottish sale
01 May 2026The 18th and 19th centuries were the golden age of topaz.
Vendor ‘shocked and delighted’ with Swiss pocket watch auction result
01 May 2026The watch-makers in the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland were a textbook 19th century cottage industry – typically self-employed men, and some women, working either in the ateliers based in the hamlet of Crêt-Meylan or at home. Seldom did they receive credit for their great skill.