Terms of use and conditions of sale

These conditions govern every sale conducted on this platform. Registering to bid, submitting an item for sale, or bidding are each an acceptance of them in full. They apply to bidders and to consignors alike, and where a section is addressed to only one of the two, that is stated in its heading.

The auction house may amend these conditions between sales. An amendment never applies retrospectively to a lot already offered: what governs a lot is the version in force when the bid was placed or the item was consigned, and a full copy of that version is stored against each acceptance.

Bidding requires an approved registration. Registration asks for a legal name, a residential address, a telephone number and a government-issued identity document, and by registering you authorise the auction house to verify that information.

Identity documents are held in encrypted private storage, are readable only by the staff reviewing an application, and are deleted automatically at the end of the stated retention period. The document number itself is never stored in readable form.

Approval is a decision of the auction house and may be refused, limited by a credit ceiling, suspended or withdrawn. A registration obtained with false information is void, and any bid placed under it may be cancelled.

A bidder number is issued once and is permanent. You are responsible for every bid placed from your account.

Every bid is a binding offer to buy at that price, plus the buyer's premium and any applicable tax and fees. Bids cannot be retracted.

Bidding is by maximum (proxy) bid. You state the most you are willing to pay; the platform bids on your behalf in the published increments only as far as it must to keep you in the lead, and stops at your maximum. Your maximum is never disclosed to another bidder.

Lots close in sequence, one after another, on the published schedule. A bid placed in the final moments of a lot extends that lot's closing time by the published anti-snipe interval, so no lot can be won by timing alone.

The platform's own clock decides whether a bid arrived in time. A bid recorded after a lot has closed is not accepted, whatever the bidder's device displays.

Where a lot carries a reserve, the reserve figure is confidential and is never published. Whether the platform shows that a reserve has been met is a setting of each sale. A lot that does not meet its reserve is unsold.

The auction house may refuse a bid, withdraw a lot before it closes, or re-offer a lot where a genuine error has occurred.

A consignor may also register as a bidder and may bid freely in any sale. A consignor may never bid on a lot they themselves consigned, whether directly, through the proxy system, or through another person acting for them.

The platform refuses such a bid outright. Any bid found to have been placed on the bidder's own property is void, the lot is treated as unsold, and the auction house may suspend both the registration and the consignment relationship.

This rule exists because a bid on your own lot is not a bid: it moves the price against genuine buyers without any intention to buy.

The successful bidder pays the hammer price, the buyer's premium at the published rate, any per-lot fee and any applicable tax. The invoice issued after the sale is the authoritative figure.

Title does not pass, and no lot is released, until the invoice has cleared in full. Risk in the lot passes to the buyer on release.

An unpaid invoice may result in forfeiture of any deposit held, suspension of the registration, and resale of the lot, with the original buyer liable for any shortfall and the costs of resale.

Lots not collected by the published deadline accrue storage charges.

By submitting an item you warrant that you hold good title to it, that it is free of any charge or claim, and that you have the right to sell it. That warranty survives the sale.

Every item is re-inspected by staff before it is catalogued. The published description, condition report and estimates are the staff-verified ones, not the ones you submitted. Your own submitted description is retained unchanged as the record of what was claimed, and the difference between the two is recorded.

The auction house may decline an item, amend its description, or withdraw it at any point before it closes.

A lot entry fee is charged per item at submission and is not contingent on the item selling, or on it being delivered. Seller's commission is charged on the hammer price of items that sell. Items that reach the sale and do not meet their reserve carry a buy-in fee. All three rates are those published at the time of submission and are itemised, never netted silently, on your settlement statement.

The auction house holds your property as bailee from the moment it is taken in, and is not liable for loss or damage except as its insurance election provides.

Settlement is paid only after the corresponding buyer invoice has cleared in full. An unsold item not collected within the stated deadline accrues storage charges and, after written notice and the statutory notice period, may be sold to recover them.

When items are taken in, the auction house issues a property list itemising exactly what was received and, once inspected, what was accepted for sale. Both parties sign it. It is the record of what is physically held and whose it is.

Check the list before signing. A discrepancy raised at handover can be resolved; one raised afterwards is a dispute about memory.

Personal data is collected to operate the sale, to meet identity and record-keeping obligations, and to contact you about your own transactions. It is not sold.

Transactional email about your own registration, bids, invoices and settlements is part of the service. Push notifications are optional and are sent only where you have granted consent, which you may withdraw.

Records that evidence a transaction — bids, invoices, statements, the audit trail, and the immutable record of what was consigned and what a buyer saw — are retained for the statutory period and cannot be deleted on request.

Condition reports are the honest opinion of the staff who inspected the item and are not a warranty. Lots are sold as they stand. Bidders are expected to satisfy themselves as to condition before bidding.

Nothing in these conditions excludes liability for fraud, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Any dispute is governed by the law of the auction house's operating jurisdiction, and the courts of that jurisdiction have exclusive jurisdiction.