EWBANK FINE ART AUCTIONEERS

Chris Ewbank came to Guildford in 1982 and founded Ewbank Fine Art Auctioneers in 1990. In 1994 having previously held auctions at the Hog’s Back Hotel, we acquired our present auction rooms at Burnt Common. The attractions of the property are that it is situated in a very prominent out of town location just off the A3, about 4 miles from Guildford with acres of parking. We are under ten minutes away from junction 10 of the M25 and Woking main line station is 4 miles with frequent train services to Waterloo (25 minutes).

Ewbank Auctioneers has grown from humble beginnings holding six sales a year, to the position that we hold today, with our own salerooms and some twenty sales a year. Turnover since 1990 has increased by over 800% and recent building refurbishment works including, a new mezzanine floor doubling our existing floor space, a new entrance, offices, a new heating system and external face-lift have given us both additional floor space and enhanced facilities. Throughout our time in Guildford, we have had the privilege of advising thousands of clients on the valuation and sale of Antiques and Fine Art and have conducted well in excess of a hundred Antiques and Fine Arts auctions and over three hundred General Sales. Our turnover has increased by over 800% since 1990 and we now operate the Premier auction rooms in Surrey.

If they are to succeed, businesses like ours must give clients and buyers an efficient and friendly service and, over the years, we have always tried to maintain the highest standards, adhering to the principles of probity and ethics of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers, of which we are Members. Most of our new clients come to us on recommendation, from professional advisers or existing clients. As the costs of selling by Auction in Central London have rocketed we have benefited from the general trend in recent years for more important items to be sold outside the capital. This was illustrated in 2007 when we sold the Robertson Collection of items from the Studio of Francis Bacon. The sale created enormous worldwide interest and achieved a total of over £1M.

Catalogues are produced and circulated to prospective purchasers by post and E-mail and full details, including digital illustrations of almost all lots in our quarterly Antique and Fine Art auctions are posted on this site. Buyers are attracted from all over the world. We have an agreement with artfact.com, who list our antique sales on Ebay, and facilitate active participation in the auction from a PC anywhere in the world at the time that the sale is actually in progress. This gives us an enhanced global marketing ability. We are trail-blazing in this field as there are only a handful of other Antique and Fine Art salerooms in the UK who also list on eBay. We see this as being the way forward for the future and it will maximise our ability to achieve the best possible prices for our clients. In our first internet linked auction in 2005 there were nearly 20000 visits to our online catalogue generating over 500 specific enquiries and the figures have risen markedly since then.

 Chris Ewbank has taken a very active part in the leadership of the profession within the UK. He has been a member of the Fine Arts Advisory Panel of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is currently Chairman of its Art and Antiques Faculty Board. He has also recently been elected to its International Governing Council ( the highest decision making body in the Institution ). He joined the Committee of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers in 1994, (he first became a member in 1982), and was Chairman from 2000 - 2006. He has also in recent years been on the Executive Committee of the British Art Market Federation and was one of the first to join the new City of London Guild of Arts Scholars, Dealers and Collectors.