Historedia
EuropeEvent

First Christie's Auction

When
1766
Where
Rooms in Pall Mall, London, formerly Richard Dalton's print warehouse; Christie's, London
Episodes
2

James Christie, a Scottish auctioneer born in 1730, held the first sale under his own name at Christie's in London on 5 December 1766, in rooms on Pall Mall formerly occupied by Richard Dalton's print warehouse. Official company literature and the earliest surviving auction catalogue both date from that December, though other evidence of Christie's auction activity reaches back to 1759.

Episodes

  1. December 1766 · Christie's, LondonEarliest surviving auction catalogue

    The earliest auction catalogue retained by Christie's dates from December 1766, corroborating the December founding of the house.

  2. 5 December 1766 · Rooms in Pall Mall, London, formerly Richard Dalton's print warehouseFirst Christie's sale at Pall Mall

    James Christie conducted his first sale on 5 December 1766 at Pall Mall rooms formerly occupied by Richard Dalton's print warehouse.

Background and detail

The First Sale. According to Christie's official company literature, James Christie conducted the first sale in London on 5 December 1766. The earliest auction catalogue the company retains also dates from December 1766. The sale took place at rooms in Pall Mall, formerly occupied by the print warehouse of Richard Dalton, and the Pall Mall premises became known as Christie's Great Rooms.

Dating and Identity. The 5 December 1766 date rests on the company's own account, and the December 1766 catalogue corroborates a December founding. Other sources complicate the picture of when Christie's sales began, citing rented rooms from 1762 and advertisements from 1759, so the inaugural sale of December 1766 is best understood as the founding event of the firm rather than the first recorded auction activity of James Christie.

People involved

  • James Christie · Founder and auctioneer who conducted the first sale
  • Richard Dalton · Former occupant of the Pall Mall print warehouse used for the first sale

Sources

  1. Christie's Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-10
  2. James Christie (auctioneer) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.