x
RECEIVE BUSINESS MK FREE TO YOUR DOOR EACH MONTH, COURTESY OF ROYAL MAIL.
* indicates required

From poultry to paintings and million-dollar classics

Auctioneer and TV presenter Charlie Ross talks to Andrew Gibbs about a career that began selling chickens and turkeys in Bletchley and culminated in the sale of a $22 million classic car.

…………………………………………..

WORKING the room. Sensing the mood. Analysing the audience. Finding those with buying on their mind… The secrets of success in the auction room, according to a man who should know.

“I love auctioneering,” says TV personality and auctioneer Charlie Ross. “Rather than having to know about the things I am selling, I like to find out about the people who are buying them.

“The big excitement is seeing someone who really wants to buy the item and the thrill you can see on their face when they succeed. It does not matter whether it is a table for £40 or a car for $10 million.”

Charlie has been overseeing sales since the age of 18, originally auctioning chickens and turkeys after joining estate agent and auction house WS Johnson in Bletchley. “My first sale was a pen of chickens for three shillings and nine old pence.”

He then went freelance before teaming up with former WS Johnson colleague Alan Downer at Downer Duff, a chartered surveyor firm in Milton Keynes, to launch a fine art auction division. It was based at the Old Town Hall in Woburn for 25 years.

Life has worked out all right for the teenager whose dream of becoming a dentist foundered when he flunked his A Levels. Today Charlie remains a favourite on the BBC programme Bargain Hunt, of which he is one of seven presenters, and has appeared on Antiques Road Trip, Flog It!, Antiques Roadshow and others.

When he is not on our TV screens, he is conducting auctions in California of vintage cars. He has conducted the Pebble Beach Vintage Car auction in California, and the Amelia Island auction in Florida for Gooding & Company for many years. But it was a job that came about by chance.

A friend was an auctioneer in California and recommended Charlie to David Gooding, who ran the RM sales in California. Gooding was coming to the UK and agreed to meet at The Randolph Hotel in Oxford.

“I had never been to America and I did not have the courage to tell him. I had never sold anything in dollars and never sold anything for £1 million, and one car alone was worth more than this amount.  But he wanted me to do the sale so I came up with a really good plan.

“I said: ‘Fly me to America business class, put me up in a five-star hotel and I’ll conduct your auction. Then afterwards you can pay me what you think I’m worth.”

20 years on, Charlie will conduct this year’s auction at Pebble Beach. It was the scene of, for him, his stand-out sale: of a 1935 Mormon Meteor car that had held the land speed record. The price: $4.05 million.

It is a huge event, attracting 1,500-2,000 people. The combined bottom estimates for this year’s auction are $198 million!

Charlie still holds the record for the highest price for an American car achieved at auction. A 1935 Duesenberg sold in 2018 for $22 million.

He has penned the story of his life in his autobiography Sold!, co-written with his author brother Stewart and published by Blean Books, and is taking his reflections of his career around the country on a theatre tour in the company of fellow antiques experts and presenters Christina Trevanion and Philip Serrell.

Charlie Ross with fellow antiques experts Christina Trevanion and Philip Serrell.

In the show, called Antiques and a Little Bit of Nonsense, the three auctioneers share secrets of the antiques world and themselves before answering questions from the audience. The show is coming to The Stables in Wavendon on January 26.

Charlie looks back at his time in the Downer Ross saleroom in Woburn with fondness. It began when chartered surveyor Alan Downer, who had worked with Charlie at WS Johnson but was now joint senior partner of the property firm Downer Duff, approached him to set up a partnership.

The first auction sales took place at Great Linford Manor before a move to The Old Town Hall in Woburn, where Downer Ross Fine Art Auctioneers remained until 2008.

“Alan was a chartered surveyor and there was no synergy between commercial sheds and offices and antiques,” says Charlie. “But Alan liked antiques.

“However the most exciting thing was clearing houses and finding lovely treasures. I remember an old bureau bookcase which came out of a house at Water Eaton. The owner came along to a roadshow in Newport Pagnell and said he had been offered £1,000. I went and had a look and reckoned it was worth a bit more than that.

Charlie Ross in his Woburn salesroom.

“It ended up selling for £32,000, That was my first big sale.”

Another find – an oil painting by French impressionist Fantin-Latour – sold at auction at Sotheby’s for £200,000.

The worst lot he ever sold? An old wardrobe in the Woburn saleroom. “We asked for opening bids of £100 – nothing. £50 – nothing. £10 – nothing. Then I said: ‘It’s free to anyone who will take it away’. Nothing.

“I said I’ll pay anyone £5 to take it away. Nothing. “£10 to take it away.” A gentleman put his hand up, I said sold, gave him a tenner out of my pocket and told him I never wanted to see the wardrobe again.”

The best? “The Mormon Meteor. It was so different to anything I had ever sold before.”

Charlie’s distinctive style has drawn praise from those for whom he conducts auctions. David Gooding, whose company presents the annual Pebble Beach auction, describes him as “without doubt the finest auctioneer I have ever seen in action.”

He added: “Charlie’s vast experience and ease on the rostrum, combined with his charm and quick wit, enable him to engage and keep total control of a room that is sometimes as large as 2,000 people.”

Said Charlie: “I have been auctioneering since I was 18 and I still love it. You have to have a passion for what you do, a clear voice, command of the room and keep the sale moving.”

Charlie also carries out between 70 and 80 charity auctions every year for organisations including The Prince’s Trust, Cancer Research UK, The Red Cross and, locally, Willen Hospice and The Lord’s Taverners. His auction at the Elton John AIDS Foundation dinner in 2022 raised £2.2 million while the charity Caudwell Children benefited by more than £430,000 after an auction at the Amber Lounge in Monaco.

Charity lots are many and varied. Charlie has auctioned a one-on-one yoga session with singer-songwriter Sting for £65,000 and a self-portrait painted by boxer Frank Bruno that raised £10,000. “Even though I think he must have painted it with his gloves on.”

One of the oddest lots was a hip replacement donated by a Harley Street surgeon and bought by a 40-year-old man for £3,500. “I said to him ‘You know the surgeon will be long retired if not dead by the time you need it…”

Sold! Is published by Blean Books bleanbooks.co.uk. Price: £20.

Also available from www.waterstones.com and www.amazon.co.uk on line.

Tickets to Antiques and a Little Bit of Nonsense at The Stables, Wavendon, on January 26 are on sale at stables.org.

…………………………………………..

  • Stay connected with local business through Business MK. Join our exclusive community for the latest news, insights, updates, features, and thought leadership. Stay informed – subscribe now. Unsubscribe at any time: bit.ly/3MZiqzQ

More from Milton Keynes:

More features articles: