Hints and tips:
...Bonhams, the 200-year-old auctioneer, has whittled down the number of suitors for the business to fewer than five having hoisted a for-sale sign two months ago....
...Bonhams was founded through a merger of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale in 2001. This was followed by the acquisition of Butterfields, a firm of auctioneers based on the West Coast of the US....
...Bonhams, as a private company, is tightly held by just two shareholders, Robert Brooks and Dutch collector/ auctioneer Evert Louwman....
...Bonhams, the privately owned auctioneer, boasted rises of more than a fifth in turnover and pre-tax profits after a run of strong sales of art and collectables last year....
...achieved for a bottle of 1850s W and J Mutter’s “Bowmore” that was hammered down by Glasgow auctioneers McTear’s in 2007....
...In 2002 he acquired Butterfield & Butterfield, long-established auctioneers on America’s West Coast from e-Bay. This made Bonhams the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world....
...Meanwhile, Bonhams and Butterfields sells art from the bankrupt Californian law firm Heller Ehrman this Tuesday in New York, with more to come in San Francisco in February next year....
...Robert Koo, a New York-based art succession and philanthropy consultant for Bonhams New York, a branch of the auctioneer and appraiser of fine art and antiques based in London, says he encourages his clients...
...The idea seems preposterous – Bonhams’ sales are about a quarter of either company – but the 50-year-old has made some impressive advances towards his goal. He comes from a family of auctioneers....
...Martin Gammon, books and manuscripts specialist at Bonhams & Butterfields, says: “Ten years ago, these albums were collected more as a curiosity because of the [elaborately coloured] plates....
International Edition