London Weekend Break

London Auction houses

London is famous for many different things and, no more so, than in the area of arts and antiquities. The result is that London has long been one of, if not the, auction centre of the world and this is demonstrated by the famous auction houses that originate from, or are based in, the city of London.

London’s association with the arts does of course originate from the city being one of the oldest and most prosperous in Europe if not the world. This made it a natural sales ground for merchants and sellers going back hundreds of years and, as the cosmopolitan and ever changing population of the city demanded, products of every type and from every location went on sale there.

London also became the gateway to the new world, both in terms of the USA and Canada, and also Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The main reason was probably the commonality of language and this meant that London became the place to buy anything that originated from continental Europe. This certainly contributed to London’s success as a place to sell expensive items.

As time passed by and the sophistication of buyers was exploited by clever sales people, auction houses evolved and expanded. The concept was that, rather than “set a fixed price” for a limited supply product, potential buyers would be allowed to compete with the winner being the one who paid the most.

In real terms this was nothing more than organised bartering, and it became the way to buy and sell large volumes of everything from food to clothing. It also became the way to sell anything that was in small or single numbers, but still in high demand.

Today these kinds of auction still exists and you can see them at London fish market everyday, however when we talk about modern auctions we tend to think about the arts, valuable antiquities, or items with a value resulting from association, e.g. Elvis Presley’s guitar.

London's auction houses

Most auction houses will sell just about anything and all have special themed sales that may focus around a particular era, art form or even a person. In the case of London’s larger auctioneers, these themes or works of art can command massive prices and sometimes gain international publicity. This make them part of what makes London special and unique.

There are many auction houses in London, however the ones with the highest profiles are normally considered to be Christies, Sotheby’s and Bonhams.

Sales at auction houses are always well publicised, so if an auction is going to be one of your weekend break events you will have little difficulty discovering what is going to go up for auction on any particular day. All of the auction houses have their own websites and they also promote themed and regular auctions in the local press.