Hong Kong's middle market goes under the hammer

An 8,000 sq ft space tucked away in an Ap Lei Chau warehouse is Steve Freeman's latest labour of love. An avid art collector and regular fixture on the local art scene, Freeman is the organiser of ArtWalk HK and now the founder of the city's only mid-market auction house, called Gresham's.

Freeman's concept for the auction house came about via a friend who complained about how hard it was to sell stuff through auction in Hong Kong. Surprised to hear this, Freeman tried to put some items up for sale himself, just to see what would happen, and as it turns out "although there are things that are easy to sell in Hong Kong there wasn't a venue for what I'd say 'normal stuff' to be sold. I said to myself, 'Well, heck I can do this. It's not that hard.'"

Most of the items at Gresham's falls in the range of HK$1,000 to HK$100,000, or what's called the middle market. Any higher than that and it gets the interest of Christie's and Sotheby's. Any lower than that and it would appear on GeoExpat.

"There are two levels of auctions. There are the three major international houses - Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams. Then a number of very specialised auction houses do only wine or stamps or coins or Chinese works of art," says Freeman. "Nobody is a generalist. If you want to sell a 1950s mid-century design desk, you're going to be very hard-pressed to find somewhere that can sell it."

The name comes from Freeman's English ancestry. "My mother's mother was a Gresham. It's a very old family in the United Kingdom and [Sir Thomas Gresham] was a very interesting man, the founder of Gresham College in London, also the founder of the Royal Exchange," he says, explaining that the building - a London landmark - was used by merchants and tradesmen for trading.

"It was a place to simply buy and sell stuff. It was the first purpose-built building in the UK for trading. I thought, well, that's very appropriate," says Freeman.

Gresham's first auction took place at the beginning of the month with 148 lots up for bidding. The theme was interiors and included items such as a 19th century Chinese lacquered writing slope that sold for HK$10,000, an 18th century copper chocolate pot priced at HK$4,000 and a lounge chair by famed 20th century designer Milo Baughman for about HK$24,000.