Out West with Bonhams & Butterfield’s
FROM THE JAILHOUSE TO THE AUCTION HOUSE
The quirky beginnings of the properly British auctioneering house of Bonhams & Butterfield’s may surprise you. Former sheriff William Butterfield traded his badge and gun for a gavel in 1865 to found Marble Head Auctioneers on the current site of San Francisco’s iconic TransAmerica Pyramid. Butterfield cashed in on the pioneers and adventuresome spirits who traveled west to seek their fortunes during the mid-19th-century Gold Rush. He catered to the newly emerging middle class’s tastes for the finer things in life, including art, antiques, and home furnishings. As the premier West Coast auction house continued to successfully expand into European and Asian markets over the next century, it caught the eye of private art auction house Bonhams, which bought and consolidated the two companies in 2002 to become the third largest auction house after Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Collectively, on both sides of the Atlantic, the auction house hosts almost 800 sales a year, more than either of the top two houses.
From classic cars and estate jewelry to real estate, many auction houses offer a wide array of objects to bid on.
Bonhams & Butterfield’s sales run the gamut from classy cars to shocking graphic art. Known around the world as a leader in the collectible car auction arena, the auction house sold a rare 1926 Bugatti race car for $1.2 million US and the world’s oldest Cadillac, a 1903 Runabout, for $337,000 in 2007. In the same year, the auction house took $400,000 for nine tiny works by American underground comic master Robert Crumb (known to many as R. Crumb).
You could say the maverick spirit of one-time “Wild West” sheriff Butterfield is alive and well! —SBR