Since opening its out-of-town new headquarters and fine art salerooms at Battlefield, Shrewsbury earlier this year, the company has been busy strengthening its team of experts.
Now, from next month, Halls will have the distinction of selling every lot live online, irrespective of whether it’s a fine art or interiors auction. The move is aimed to maximise value and ensure that lots reach the widest possible audience.
Currently, all auction lots are listed on the company’s website but only fine art sales are conducted online with live audio coverage. Next step will be to add live video coverage of all its auctions.
Fine art director Jeremy Lamond is also keen to improve the company’s social media presence to attract even more people to the regular actions at the impressive new salerooms.
“We aim to harness all the latest technology to maximise the potential return to vendors and give them the widest possible audience for their goods by offering them all to the world,” said Mr Lamond.
“When combined with the fact that Halls has invested in a first class team of fine art experts, who are able to spot the potential of goods, it means that the people of the Shropshire, Wales and the West Midlands now have a fantastic resource at their disposal.
“We have built the best fine art saleroom in the West Midlands and have staffed it with the best experts that we can find. I want people to naturally think of Halls as the auction house of choice when they have items to sell or to value because we offer the best series of sales to maximise the value of their goods.”
A major change since Halls moved from the Welsh Bridge in the centre of Shrewsbury has been to replace weekly general auctions with fortnightly interiors auctions, which focus on modern and antique home furnishings at an affordable price. The auction content is useable fashion items for the modern interior.
Computerised invoicing and registration makes the sale process much smoother and there is extensive parking available to buyers and sellers, together with a quality on-site café facility.
Recruited to run the interiors saleroom is Aaron Dean, 33, a valuer and auctioneer, who has worked for auctioneers Gorringes in Sussex for the past decade.
Other new recruits are Allan Darwell, an experienced paintings specialist who joins as head of the paintings department after 10 years at Tennants Auctioneers in Yorkshire, Chinese graduate Jing Liu Murphy, 29, who joins the Asian art department and acts as international liaison with the company’s growing Far Eastern customer base and Peter Williams, an internationally respected ceramics specialist.
Shropshire Live is regulated by 