C&T Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd is proud to organise and run multiple successful auctions every year - but how did the practice of auctions begin?

The term ‘auction’ gives us a hint towards ancient origins of the practice. ‘Auction’ derives from the Latin augere, meaning to augment, referring to the process in which each bid is an augmentation of the previous one.

While auctions were commonplace in Ancient Rome, they in fact pre-date the Romans considerably - and have a slightly darker beginning. The earliest recorded auction was the sale of human beings at the Babylonian Marriage Market around 500 BCE, as reported by Herodotus of Halicarnassus in The Histories, in which women were sold off to the highest bidder.

From the ancient world, we take a leap through time to 1674, when Stockholms Auctionsverk was established as the first ever auction house. However, it was not until the eighteenth century that the now-familiar, international titans of auction houses, such as Sotheby’s (1744) and Christie’s (1766) emerged.

Other key developments occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including the emergence of the gavel as a symbol of auctioneering. An interesting practice of this time was the popular format of ‘auctions by candle’. These auctions allowed bidding until the candle flame expired. Shockingly, the candle was not a particularly robust way of policing auctions, vulnerable to sly time-wasting tactics or strategically aimed coughs.

Jumping forward again to the twentieth century, the auction field continued to grow and specialise. It became common for auction houses to specialise and adopt niche markets, allowing them to more closely target interested bidders. Thanks to the visibility given to auctioneering by TV shows such as Antiques Roadshow (first televised 1979), auctions gained popularity through the 1980s.

Through the twenty-first century auctions have been revolutionised by changing technologies, with online bidding bringing collectors closer to collectible items all over the world. Established in 1995, eBay famously took online bidding to the masses. More recently, auction houses have had to adapt to the demands and restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, shifting even more activities online.

While C&T Auctioneers & Valuers is a relatively fresh addition to this lineage, being established in 2013, we are still proud to be situated in such a lengthy tradition of auctioneering. We are a militaria and toy specialist auction house, with departments covering military collectibles, antique dolls, and coins to name just a few. In line with the digitisation of the twenty-first century, C&T have transitioned to an online-only format, with bidders being able to participate via an online platform, through phone bids or by leaving absentee bids.

If you are interested in participating in this historic and exciting practice, make sure you register to bid in our upcoming auctions, or phone the office for more information!