Abbott and Holder is an art gallery and dealership in London, England, that specialises in low-price, 19th- and 20th-century English paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints.[1][2] The gallery has been located at 30 Museum Street, London WC1 since 1987.[1][3][4]
Type | Art dealers |
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Founded | 1936 (1936) |
Founders |
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Headquarters | 30 Museum Street, Camden, London, England 51.5178712°N 0.1259238°W / 51.5178712; -0.1259238 |
Website | www![]() |
The company was founded by and named after Robert Abbott, a former headmaster and a Quaker minister,[5] and non-theist Quaker Eric Holder, an accountant who had been a conscientious objector and ambulance driver in the Second World War.[5] The pair first dealt art jointly in 1936.[3][6] Robert retired on health grounds in 1959.[5] In 1969, Anna Holder was also listed on the company's letterhead. Robert's nephew John Abbott (1937–2011),[5] who had worked for the firm in the 1960s,[5] became a partner in 1971.[4] Eric Holder retired in 1981 and Philip Athill,[7] an art history graduate and assistant at the gallery from 1979,[5] eventually the company's Managing Director, became a partner in 1984.[4] John Abbott retired in 2001.[8] On 31 March 2021 Athill announced on the gallery's website that he had on his retirement passed the business to junior director Tom Edwards, thereby maintaining an unbroken line of successful partnership since 1936. [9]
Before moving to Museum Street, the gallery occupied part of a house at 73 Castelnau, Barnes, which had been Robert Abbott's home.[8][10] The large Victorian property belonged to the Eric Holder family from 1951 to 1981, with 'the business' occupying the basement and ground floor.
As well as general sales, promoted with a monthly-updated "list", the gallery holds topical and artist-specific exhibitions,[11][12][13][14] occasionally including living artists.[15][16] In 1960, Eric Holder invited Reginald Gray to hold his first London solo exhibition at the gallery.[17] In 1961, Gray painted Holder's portrait.[17]
The gallery's clients have included the UK Government Art Collection[18] and Abbott and Holder's near neighbour, the British Museum.[19] Over four hundred works on paper at the British Museum have come from them.
Abbott and Holder are members of the British Antique Dealers' Association.[20]
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