I have called roughly 240 evening and day sales over 16 years, with a personal rostrum total of £310 million. I specialise in Post-War British painting and in keeping a room calm when two telephone bidders are not. Condition report available on request.
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Property from the Career of the Auctioneer
SOLD
LOT 1Head of Auctioneering, Post-War & Contemporary
Halloway's Auction House, St James's, London · 2019–present
Took the rostrum for 14 evening sales per year; the March 2024 sale totalled £48.2 million against a low estimate of £31 million
Set the house record for a single lot, £9.4 million for a 1962 abstract, after a 6-minute contest between 4 telephone bidders
Trained 5 junior auctioneers; 3 now call day sales on their own
Provenance: Promoted internally from Senior Specialist; appointment confirmed by the board, June 2019.
Exhibited: "The Saleroom at Work", Halloway's client evening, October 2023.
Estimate £120,000 – £150,000 per annum, plus rostrum bonus
LOT 2Senior Specialist, Modern British Art
Halloway's Auction House, London · 2013–2019
Catalogued 620 lots per year and wrote provenance essays for 11 single-owner collections
Consigned the Petherton Collection, 74 lots, which sold 96% by lot in November 2017
Cut cataloguing errors flagged at condition review from 18 to 3 per season by introducing a second-reader rule
Provenance: Acquired from Wexford & Blythe (see Lot 3) after a discreet approach at the Grosvenor fair, 2013.
Exhibited: Petherton Collection highlights tour, Edinburgh and Bath, autumn 2017.
Estimate £62,000 – £78,000 per annum
LOT 3Specialist, Victorian & Edwardian Pictures
Wexford & Blythe Auctioneers, Mayfair, London · 2008–2013
Valued roughly 1,100 pictures per year at desk, at house calls, and once in a barn near Diss
Identified a mislabelled 1897 portrait in a general sale; re-offered with full attribution at £340,000, 17 times its first estimate
Provenance: Entered the trade as a graduate trainee; retained after cataloguing 200 lots in a fortnight during the 2008 staffing shortage.
Estimate £28,000 – £41,000 per annum
LOT 4Cataloguer (Graduate Trainee)
Wexford & Blythe Auctioneers, London · 2006–2008
Measured, photographed, and described 3,400 lots across 22 sales; learned that "circle of" and "manner of" are different words for a reason
Provenance: By direct application, following a summer porter's post at a regional saleroom in Harrogate.
Estimate £17,000 – £19,000 per annum
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Appendices
Education
MA History of Art, The Courtauld-style Institute of Farrow Square, London, 2006
Thesis: dealer stock books of the 1950s St James's trade
BA History, University of Chalfont, 2004, First Class
Qualifications & Notes
Licensed auctioneer; approx. 240 sales called since 2010
Guest lecturer, valuation practice, Farrow Square Institute, 2021–present
Languages: English, working French for condition reports
Buyer's premium not applicable to references, supplied gladly on request.