ABSTRACT
The first documented auction of pictures in England took place at Somerset House in London in 1674. We know very little of this sale, save what the Marquis of Worcester happened to record in a letter to his wife. He told her he had 'ventured with his little skill to buy pictures at Somerset House for above a hundred pounds, sold at outcry as the way is in Holland', and later added that 'four of the six pictures he is buying have no frames'.1 Ten years later John Verney, the son of the Buckingham gentleman Sir Ralph Verney, wrote to his father about another art auction, held this time at the Banqueting House at Whitehall. Although John apparently did not make any purchases himself, he keenly observed those of others. He reported to his father that the 'brave apothecary', 'Mr St Amand bought the first picture, Adam and Eve beaten out of paradise by an angel, for 45 pounds', while noting that 'Sir James Oxenden of Kent hath given 310 1. for the picture of a battle; and 260 1. for another picture of our Saviour confuting the Doctors', and he advised Sir Ralph that 'if you were in towne you might find [such] opportunityes to lay out loose money'.2
