Ma hew Barton

Caroline Wheater peeks into the busy working life of Ma hew Barton at Olympia Auctions

‘I grew up in Lancashire and was lugged around salerooms by my mother and aunt, both collectors of furniture and pictures. I did business studies but hated it and miraculously got onto the Sotheby’s Works of Art course instead. It was a great starting point for a career in the world of auctions and dealing in antiques.

‘I’ve had luck and good timing in my career. In 1996 I was helping out in Sotheby’s ceramics department during the Easter holidays when a position for a trainee cataloguer came up in the silver department and I got the job. I stayed for three and a half years learning everything I could.

‘My next job was in Kenya, auctioning European and English antiques – that stint really broadened my outlook on life. In 2009, I teamed up with Thomas del Mar, who sells antique arms, to mount my own auctions at 25 Blythe Road in Kensington, which is now called Olympia Auctions. I run two big sales a year, in May and November, offering 400 to 750 lots, with estimates from £50 to £50,000. ‘Silver is a speciality, but we also get lots of interest in 18th and early 19th- century ceramics, and antiques from south- east Asia.

‘Day to day, I visit clients and liaise with consultants, but cataloguing is my favourite part of the job. Tracking down the history of a piece is like being given a puzzle to solve. I have my own reference library and often visit the libraries of the V& A, Sotheby’s and Christie’s. At Olympia Auctions we pride ourselves on getting it right.’ 020 7806 5541; olympiaauctions.com

ABOVE FROM LEFT A silver cream pail d dating i to 1770, 177 made by Francis Spilsbury of London, sold for £700; this 1740s Canton enamel snuff box, elaborately decorated on the lid and on the bottom, is Chinese- made in the European taste, and sold for £800; part of a collection of antique Damascus tiles, this colourful late 16th- century example sold for £2,800.