Described by the Antiques Trade Gazette as "arguably the most exciting provincial saleroom in the country", Woolley and Wallis has lived up to that title in recent years with a string of record-breaking sales and notable prices.
Of the eleven lots to make over a million pounds at regional auction houses, Woolley and Wallis has sold nine, including our top lot - a Chinese spinach-green jade water buffalo - for a hammer price of £3.4m in 2009. In 2010 the Asian Art sale became the highest ever grossing sale for a provincial auction house, and at £7.3m the sale in question eclipsed the equivalent sales at all three of the London salerooms. The gross annual turnovers for 2010 and 2011 made Woolley and Wallis the highest grossing provincial saleroom for two years running, and in April 2012 a pair of natural pearl earrings sold for £1.6m, a record for any Jewellery department outside of London.
