Dreweatts and Bloomsbury auctions sold
October 3 2017
Picture: DNFA
Laura Chesters in The Antiques Trade Gazette reports that the on-off sale of Dreweatts & Bloomsbury auctioneers has gone ahead. This time the valuation firm Gurr Johns has acquired the company for £1.25m cash, with an additional fee of up to £.4m payable within the next two years. The existing chairman, George Bailey, will stay in post with his part of the current management team. Earlier this year another sale to another bidder (to include the antisues firm Mallett) was announced at £2.4m, but this fell through.
The vendor is the stamp firm, Stanley Gibbons. They went on an antique markt buying spree in 2013, and lost tens of millions of pounds. The sale of Dreweatts now gains them only a fraction of their initial outlay. For more on the history, see the ATG here.
Like almost every regional auctioneer in the UK, the new Dreweatts will hope to capitalise on the closure of Christie's South Kensington saleroom.
