Auction Houses

Anderson, John Jr. 

1900 – 1903

34 West 30th Street

from 1901: 20 West 30th Street

1903: at 91 & 93 Fifth Avenue (successor to Bangs & Co.)

first sale on Feb. 6, 1900

in March 1903 Anderson purchased the business of Bangs and Company, change of name to Anderson Auction Company

Anderson Auction Company

1903 – 1915

5 West 29th Street

from 1908: 12 East 46th Street

from 1911: 284 Madison Avenue

1912: 16 East 40th Street

from 1912: Madison Avenue 40th Street

Arthur Swann, chief of the book department, till 1913

Anderson Galleries

1915 – 1929

284 Madison Avenue

from Nov. 5, 1917: 489 Park Avenue

John B. Stetson, Jr. was the largest financier

Mitchell Kennerley, president

The American Art Association

1883 – 1929

head: Thomas E. Kirby (d. 1924)

4-6 East 23rd St., Madison Square South, New York

from 1922: 30 East 56-57th Street

Arthur Swann (from 1913 to 1928)

in 1923: Cordtlandt Field Bishop purchased the AAA from Kirby 

Vice-Presidents Hiram Parke and Otto Bernet

The American Art Association – Anderson Galleries

1929 – 1939

head: Robert Milton Mitchell (1929-1933, d. 1939)

1933: Hiriam H. Parke, President, Otto Bernet, Vice-President (-1937)

1937 – 1938 Mitchell Kennerley

30 East 56-57th Street

Arthur Swann reinstated, retired in the 1950s

Bangs and Company

1837 – 1903

from 1896: 91 & 93 Fifth Avenue, New York

the oldest book auction house in New York

taken over by John Anderson, Jr., in 1903

Bloomsbury Book Auctions

1983 – 2004

starting in 6a Bedford Square, London

from 1984: 3-4 Hardwick St., Islington, London

founded by Frank Herrmann, Lord John Kerr and David Stagg (all three coming from Sotheby’s)

Bloomsbury Auctions

2004 – 2011

Maddox St., London

2007 – 2011

New York office

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions

2011 – today

Bonhams

1793 – today

Montpelier St., Knightsbridge, London

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America.

Christie, Manson & Woods

1859 – 1918

8 King St. / St. James’s Sq., London

Christie’s (London)

1973 – today

Christie’s (New York)

1977 – today

Duttons, Inc.

681 Fifth Avenue, New York

Forum Auctions

2016 – today

successor of Bloomsbury Book Auctions

Leslie Hindman

Chicago

Leslie Hindman opened her auction house in Chicago in 1982. Within a few years, it became the largest auction house in the Midwest, and one of the largest in the U.S. In 1997, Ms. Hindman sold the house to Sotheby’s, and “retired“ to host a television program for HGTV and write a column for the Chicago Tribune. In time, Sotheby’s shut down the Midwestern auction and Ms. Hindman missed the business, so in 2003, she reopened Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago. In 2010, the auction expanded by opening a second location in Naples, Florida.     Now doing business as Hindman Auctions

Hodgson & Co.  (John, Sidney, Wilfrid)

1901 – 1967

“Auctioneers of Books“

115, Chancery Lane, London WC2

merging with Sotheby’s in 1967, sales continued to be held at Hodgson’s Rooms, until 1981

The Merwin-Clayton Sales Company

1904 – 1912

20-24 East 20th Street, New York

Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc. (New York)

1937-1964

742 Fifth Avenue

from 1939: 30 East 57th Street, New York

from 1949-1964:
980 Madison Avenue

Arthur Swann, head of book and print department

Otto Bernet died in 1945
H.H. Parke retired in 1953, died in 1959

followed by Vandegrift, Louis Marion and Leslie Hyam (suicide in 1963)

Puttick and Simpson

1841 – 1954

47 Leicester Square, London

taken over by Phillips, Son & Neale in 1954, continued to have a separate identity until 1971

Phillips

1796-1840 Phillips
1840-1882 Phillips & Son
1882-1970s Phillips, Son & Neale
1970s-2001 Phillips

After a series of disastrous sales and extremely heavy losses Bonhams bought the UK operations of Phillips in 2001 and merged them into the Bonhams name

The Rosenbach Company

1903 – 1952

1320 Walnut Street, Philadelphia

from 1942: 1618 Locust St., Philadelphia

17 East 51 Street, New York

see Bement, Clarence S. 

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (London)

1864 – 1924

Wellington Street

from 1917: 34-35, New Bond Street

Sotheby & Co. / Sotheby’s (London)

1924 – today

34-35 New Bond Street, Mayfair

founded in 1744

since 1954 an American representative and a New York office

acquired Parke-Bernet in 1964

opened offices in Paris, Los Angeles and Houston in 1967 

opened offices in Melbourne, Florence and Toronto in 1968

opened offices in Zurich, Munich and Edinburgh in 1969

opened office in Monte Carlo in 1975

opened office in Vienna in 1981

Sotheby Parke-Bernet (New York)

1964 – 1983

Peregrine Pollen, President

York Ave 72nd Street

from 1981: 171 East 84th Street

Sotheby Parke-Bernet (London)

1977 – today

Swann Galleries, Inc.

1942 – today

104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010 

founded in 1941

a third-generation family business

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