A live talk at King’s Church
Philip Taylor: The History of Gorringe’s Auction Galleries
Philip Taylor takes a look over almost 100 years of Gorringe’s Auction Galleries’ history, from a local Sussex saleroom, to an internationally known business at the forefront of the online auction experience.
As with a number of successful provincial auction rooms, Gorringe’s largely owes its origins to one famous sale; theirs being the contents of Lewes House, conducted by Rowland Gorringe in 1929. The sale aroused international interest, resulting in Rowland becoming ‘’the man’’ to consult for the sale of Art and Antiques in Sussex.
Philip Taylor, a partner since 1981, will discuss and trace the firm’s journey through almost 100 years, from periodic ‘’on the premises’’ house sales, to the eventual opening of Gorringe’s Galleries, in North Street, Lewes, in 1945.
Philip will cover outside sales of the contents of country house, private schools, as well as looking at a host of remarkable individual sale results, including £24,000 for a lock of John Lennon’s hair and the £82,000 for Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London.
We will hear how sales ledger accounting has progressed to state-of-the-art digital online sales, which now expose every sale to over 3,000,000 potential buyers.
Gorringes Auction Galleries, Lewes
Venue: The King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes, BN7 2BY. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase). Please don’t park in Homebase’s car park: they take deliveries in the evenings.
Entry: Entry is FREE for LHG members, and £4 for non-members. Details to follow.
Covid precautions: Details to follow.
See the Talks page for a list of forthcoming monthly events organised by the Lewes History Group.
Lewes History Group 