Bonhams

Bonhams
Private
Industry Auctions, Valuations
Founded London, United Kingdom
(1793)
Founders Thomas Dodd and Walter Bonham
Headquarters 101 New Bond Street, London, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 66 locations worldwide
(as of 2012)
Key people
 Robert Brooks,
Chairman
Malcolm Barber,
Group CEO
Matthew Girling,
CEO UK
Liz Collins,
CFO
Shahin Virani
COO
Products Fine arts, pictures, collectables and motor cars
Number of employees
 832 (2012)
Divisions Bonhams London
Bonhams Paris
Bonhams New York
Bonhams San Francisco
Bonhams Los Angeles
Bonhams Hong Kong
Bonhams Sydney
Website Bonhams.com

Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house and one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought together two of the four surviving Georgian auction houses in London, Bonhams having been founded in 1793, and Phillips in 1796 by Harry Phillips, formerly a senior clerk to James Christie. Today, the amalgamated business handles art and antiques auctions. It operates two salerooms in London—the former Phillips sale room at 101 New Bond Street, and the old Bonham's sale room at the Montpelier Galleries in Montpelier Street, Knightsbridge—with smaller regional sale rooms in Edinburgh and Oxford. Sales are also held around the world in New York, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, and Singapore.[1]

History

Bonhams was set up in 1793 when Thomas Dodd, an antique print dealer, joined forces with the book specialist Walter Bonham. The company expanded and by the 1850s was handling all categories of antiques including jewellery, porcelain, furniture, arms and armour, and wine. After returning from the war, in the early 1950s, Leonard Bonham purchased some land in Knightsbridge and erected a saleroom on Montpelier Street. The first sale was held in June 1956.[2] In 2000, Bonhams became Bonhams & Brooks when it was acquired by Brooks auction house.[3] Brooks had been founded in 1989 by the former Head of Cars at Christie’s, Robert Brooks who specialized in the sale of classic and vintage motorcars. Brooks continued a major acquisition programme aimed at creating a new international fine art auction house.

In 2001 Bonhams & Brooks merged with Phillips Son & Neale to form a new UK company trading as Bonhams.[4] Phillips Son & Neale had been based in 101 New Bond Street, which subsequently became the new headquarters of Bonhams. The building consisted of seven different freeholds and had been described as "a Dickensian rabbit warren".[5] The first of the sites to be acquired was Blenstock House, an Art Deco building at the junction of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street, eventually acquiring the complete building in 1974.

Acquisition activity continued, and in 2002 Bonhams purchased Butterfields, a leading auction house on the West Coast founded in 1865.[6] Bonhams changed Butterfields’ name to Bonhams & Butterfields, and Malcolm Barber, formerly of Brooks, became the chief executive officer of the American subsidiary. Bonhams remained the company’s brand name outside of the United States.

By the end of 2003 Bonhams was conducting more than 700 annual sales, had over 600 employees, and revenues of $304 million. The company’s worldwide network of sales included two major London venues, nine additional UK locations, and salerooms in Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sydney. Bonhams & Butterfields conducted its first East Coast sale in 2003 with an auction of Edwin C. Jameson’s collection of classic cars and antiques in Massachusetts.

During 2005, Bonhams continued to expand its presence in the USA and acquired a new saleroom on Madison Avenue in New York. The company also expanded further in Europe with the opening of the Paris office in June 2005.

In October 2005, Bonhams gained full independence after buying back a 49.9% stake held by French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.

Bonhams opened a new office in Hong Kong in 2007, to further support its expansion into the Asian market. The business in Hong Kong works with clients in mainland China, Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia and, until 2014, Singapore. A new sale room launch in Singapore was announced in April 2014.[7]

In March 2008, Bonhams New York moved to new salerooms on the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue - formerly the home of the respected Dahesh Museum of Art.[8] The inaugural sale featured 20th century furniture and decorative arts.

By 2007 Bonhams sales totalled US $600 million.

With Christie’s, Bonhams is a shareholder in the London-based Art Loss Register, a privately owned database used by law enforcement services worldwide to trace and recover stolen art.[9]

Locations

Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries. It has four sale rooms in the UK; two major sales rooms in London – New Bond Street and Knightsbridge, as well as two regional sale rooms located at Edinburgh and Oxford. There are nineteen regional offices around the UK that perform valuations and consignments. Elsewhere in Europe, the Paris office holds regular auctions within the city. In the USA, sales are held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. In Asia-Pacific there are two sale rooms in Hong Kong and Sydney; and a sale room in Singapore was announced in April 2014. The 101 New Bond Street saleroom was redesigned by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands to create three new salerooms and offices for the organisation.

Notable auctions

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Shetty, Deepika. "Auction house Bonhams opens Singapore office". The Straits Times. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  2. ↑ Cooper, Jeremy (1977). Under the Hammer: The Auctions and Auctioneers of London. London: Constable and Company Limited. p. 135.
  3. ↑ "London Auction Houses Join to Become More Competitive". Daily Mail. 13 September 2000.
  4. ↑ Menon, Jon (8 July 2001). "French Tycoon Proposes Merger of Two Auction Houses". Sunday Business.
  5. ↑ Callanan, Neil. "Bonhams Auction House Gets Approval for New London Headquarters". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  6. ↑ Kopytoff, Verne (1 August 2002). "eBay's Offline Plan Fails, Butterfields Sold". San Francisco Chronicle.
  7. ↑ Shetty, Deepika. "Auction House Bonhams Opens Singapore Office". The Straits Times. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Grant, Daniel. "Auction House Expansions Underscore Art Market Rebound". ARTNEWS. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
  9. ↑ "The Art Loss Register".

External links

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