Antiques dealer Paul Atkinson sale at Sworders
A single-owner retirement sale of art and antiques from the collection of celebrated dealer Paul Atkinson will take place at an Essex auction house in May.
The two-day auction on May 13-14 titled Paul Atkinson | The Nomadic Collector will be held exactly 50 years since Atkinson opened his first antiques shop in Derbyshire, marking a lifetime spent in pursuit of beauty and history.
Paul Atkinson’s odyssey in the world of art and antiques began in 1960s Manchester. After studying marketing at college and a brief career in journalism, he chose instead to follow his passion for objects, sourcing treasures from farm sales and country auctions and running them down to London. He opened his first shop in Matlock on a rent of £6 a week in 1975.
The 1970s were an antiques dealing ‘golden age’. The following year, he shipped his first container load to the US and established a gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan and by 1977, he was exporting English furniture to Holland while expanding into Pre-Columbian, tribal and ethnographic art. In 1979, he cemented his reputation by opening a gallery in the prestigious Louvre des Antiquaires in Paris, specialising in period oak.
Throughout the 1980s, the relentless pursuit of the rare and remarkable took Atkinson across Europe – from Prague to Frankfurt to Barcelona. In 1987, at the height of his career, he acquired Sydnope Hall in Derbyshire, the magnificent 38-bedroom 19th century Tudor style mansion that was home to a young Charles Darwin.
A master storyteller and charismatic conversationalist, Paul’s charm has opened countless doors, allowing him to acquire pieces from celebrities, aristocrats, artists and collectors alike.
But at heart Paul Atkinson was always a dealer’s dealer. He built his name behind the scenes, buying and selling to other traders. Sculpture dealers, the Tomasso brothers, founded in Leeds in 1993 and now based in St James’s, were a big influence. Dino Tomasso provides a foreword to the auction catalogue.
By 2007, Paul had met his Italian-born wife Vivien and the couple relocated to a Mallorca, opening a gallery and four warehouses in the south-west mountains. Selling antiques and decorative items to high-net-worth islanders, the couple’s clientele grew to include luminaries such as Peter Stringfellow, Hollywood actor Mads Mikkelsen and Abba’s Agnetha Fältskog.
The breadth of objects for sale is impressive. The 500-plus lots span continents and centuries ranging from Grand Tour bronzes, Anglo-Indian furniture and Ottoman swords to tribal art, Chinese and Buddhist works of art and classic European furniture. All reflect Atkinson’s insatiable curiosity and lifelong passion for dealing.
The Nomadic Collector auction is Sworders’ fourth single-owner sale of the year, following the attic sale at Holkham Hall, the contents of Cheshire manor house Boden Hall and the closing down sale of Kings Road dealership Guinevere.