Sotheby's

Sotheby’s Public Auction House

Sotheby’s is one of the world’s leading auction houses that hosts public jewelry auctions in which a catalogue is issued featuring the jewelry and other items for auction. These ornate catalogues have, over the years, become an important source of information on quality polished diamond-, pearl- and gem-mounted jewelry, especially for jewelry from the beginning of the twentieth century. Sotheby’s has an office in Israel which receives representatives of Sotheby’s main office at least once a year to inspect the items that will be put up for auction.

History

On March 11, 1744, the London bookseller Samuel Baker offered 475 expensive and rare books for public auction. The auction was the foundation for a public auction house that specialized in auctioning large and important collections of books.

In 1778, after Samuel Baker’s death, his property was divided between two heirs: his then-partner, George Leigh, and his brother John Sotheby. For the next 80 years, the Sotheby Family controlled the public auction house, and expanded the scope of its operations to include printing, medals and coins. With the end of WWI, the firm added public art auctions to its spheres of operation.

Sotheby’s on the Internet

In 2000, Sotheby’s was the first international auction house to conduct a public auction over the internet. Today, Sotheby’s main offices are in New York and London, and the company has more than 100 branches all over the world.

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