Latest News Articles by Roland Arkell
Pick of the week: Trading places in Japan with Edo period cabinet
29 November 2021Estimated at £40,000-60,000, a lacquer cabinet from Edo period Japan sold for £105,000 at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on November 23.
A turquoise hippopotamus and a Russian icon are among five lots to watch
29 November 2021With estimates from £2000-60,000 here are five previews of upcoming items.
Facts and figures: a collection formed with the "eye of a man who loved and knew his subject"
29 November 2021Amassed by the headmaster of one of Britain’s finest public schools, the Silk collection of Staffordshire portrait figures provides a fillip to an overlooked market
Mauchlineware suited to a tee
29 November 2021The game of golf (originating on the eastern coast of Scotland) and mauchlineware (the name given to a family of wooden souvenirs made in south-west Scotland over a period of a century) would seem ideal bedfellows.
Japanese porcelain elephant stars in our pick of five auction highlights
26 November 2021ATG’s weekly selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes an early Japanese porcelain elephant form koro from c.1700 that made 12-times estimate at Woolley & Wallis.
Pick of the week: The Ottoman view of the world
22 November 2021A copy of the first folio atlas ever printed in the Islamic world has sold for £69,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) – the highlight of the first day of Dreweatts’ sale titled Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy.
An Only Fools & Horses van and an Arts & Crafts wall clock are among five lots to watch
22 November 2021With estimates from £80-20,000, here are five previews of upcoming items this week.
Coconut cup brings out the exotic side of Hull
22 November 2021This Charles II silver mounted coconut cup is particularly rare on account of its marks for the Hull silversmith Edward Mangie (1634-85).
'Tigerware’ beer jug emerges in Cambridge sale
22 November 2021Given their relatively small metal content, many silver-mounted ‘tigerware’ beer jugs survived the great bullion melting of the English Civil War, making them perhaps the most recognised example of late 16th century silver today.
Aristocratic connections boost rings
22 November 2021In a recent Financial Times article titled 'Dangerous baubles for boys', historian and style journalist Nick Foulkes commented that a friend had “described my hands as looking like a cabinet of curiosities trying to emulate a pair of knuckledusters”.
Spoons serve up taste of the 17th century
22 November 2021As very personal items, typically weighing little more than an ounce of bullion, the most numerous silver survivors from the 17th century are spoons.
Previews: issue 2519
22 November 2021A selection of 15 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.
Twenty shining ideas for the gift-giving season
22 November 2021Many sales in late November and early December are assembled with presents in mind and silver and jewellery are much to the fore.
Take to the floor and do some sums in Abingdon
22 November 2021The Spanish woollen rug illustrated here was pitched at £100-200 in Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Abingdon rooms on October 18.
Prince Albert’s drawings for Queen Victoria's coronet sell at Colchester auction
22 November 2021The V&A loses out in £23,000 bidding battle for Prince Albert’s drawings of the diamond and sapphire coronet he designed for Queen Victoria.
Sword soars to £8200 at Dawsons
22 November 2021Estimated at £200-300, this kaskara sold for £8200 at Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on October 28.
Original jewellery designs reflecting Glasgow style occupy a distinct market niche
22 November 2021Few lots in the Design since 1860 sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh were more admired than a series of Art Nouveau pencil and watercolour jewellery drawings by Frances Macdonald McNair (1873-1921).
The 6cm shoes for adults
22 November 2021The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.
Silver drinking novelty sails above estimate
22 November 2021The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.
Up sticks from the Potteries
22 November 2021This pair of William III silver candlesticks came for sale at Potteries Auctions (20% buyer’s premium).