Vincent Page, left, with antiques expert David Harper in Antiques on High’s antiques market in Taunton where Page is opening an auction room next year.
The closure of Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s auction rooms in Taunton (see News) has spurred Vincent Page and his wife Lesley White, owners of Antiques on High’s antiques market in the town to open their own saleroom.
These will have the rather Dickensian-sounding title of Aloysius Fortescue and Smythe - or AFS Auctions for short - and will take place monthly in 2000 sq ft of the antiques market with room for 50 people in a specially created section with a separate entrance.
Page said: “We’re only going to charge 10% commission to both buyers and sellers with a £1 listing fee for the seller as we wanted to provide an affordable alternative to the options that are currently out there.
“Customers wishing to sell pieces at the auction can drop them into us at Taunton seven days a week.”
He added: “The first monthly antiques auctions is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17, and we anticipate that clients will be able to bring in items for the first auction from December 1.”
It’s a work in progress now but come mid-January this will be a 50-seater auction room.
Simon Limm, a former auctioneer with Greenslade Taylor Hunt, will be wielding the gavel.
Asked about the auction company name, Page said: “We wanted nice old-fashioned names and the A keeps us on top of the listings - antiques, furniture and smalls.”
Page took over the Taunton Antiques Market last year, the fifth in his stable of antiques centres, all now rebranded after his first acquisition of the original Antiques on High in Oxford in 2017.
Pending the new auction website, contact Vincent Page on 07473 007474 or at enquiries@antiquesonhigh.co.uk.
