Owners of Incunabula

---
_id: 2381
_rights:
  delete: 0
  edit: 0
data:
  activity:
    - areaCode: e-uk-en
      characterisation: noc
      geonamesId: 2643743
      place: London
      professionOrType: bkt
      start: 1744
    - areaCode: n-us-ny
      characterisation: noc
      geonamesId: 5128581
      place: New York
      professionOrType: bkt
      start: 1955
  biographicalInformation: 1744-
  extDataset: []
  location:
    point: {}
  name: "London, Sotheby's "
  note: |-
    London Auctioneers. Sotheby's predecessor, Baker and Leigh, was founded in London on 11 March 1744, when Samuel Baker presided over the disposal of "several hundred scarce and valuable" books from the library of Rt Hon Sir John Stanley Bt., of Alderley. Three Swedish auction houses are even older (Stockholms Auktionsverk, Göteborgs Auktionsverk, Uppsala auktionskammare) and Sotheby's great rival in London and then New York, Christie's, dates from 1759 or shortly after. The current business dates back to 1804, when two of the partners of the original business (Leigh and Sotheby) left to set up their own book dealership. The library Napoleon took with him into exile at St Helena, as well as the library collections of John Wilkes, Benjamin Heywood Bright and the Dukes of Devonshire and of Buckingham (both related to George Leigh) were sold through Samuel Baker’s auctions.
    After Baker’s death in 1778, his estate was divided between Leigh and John Sotheby. George Leigh died unmarried in 1816, but not before endeavouring to secure his succession by recruiting Samuel E Leigh into the business. Under the Sotheby family, the auction house extended its activities to auctioning prints, medals, and coins. John Wilkinson, Sotheby's Senior Accountant, became the company’s new CEO. The business did not seek to auction fine arts in general until much later, their first major success in this field being the sale of a Frans Hals painting for nine thousand guineas as late as 1913. In 1917, Sotheby's relocated from 13 Wellington Street to 34-35 New Bond Street, which remains as its London base to this day.
    Sotheby's opened in New York in 1955; currently (2015) the New York office is global headquarters.
  type: cor
  variants:
    - Sotheby
    - 'Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge'
    - Sotheby & Co.
    - S. Leigh Sotheby & John Wilkinson
meta:
  history:
    - timestamp: 2014-11-19T12:00:00Z
    - timestamp: 2016-04-27T08:12:45
    - timestamp: 2016-05-05T19:01:26
    - timestamp: 2017-03-15T01:04:27
    - timestamp: 2017-05-11T13:20:16
    - timestamp: 2017-05-11T13:32:33
    - timestamp: 2017-05-29T05:44:36
    - timestamp: 2018-01-08T10:40:30
    - timestamp: 2018-01-24T11:46:27
    - timestamp: 2020-12-29T09:34:35
    - timestamp: 2020-12-29T09:40:52