Sotheby's

The famous, though recently somewhat turbulent auction house, founded in 1744 as a London book dealer, has its online presence here, with the UK and USA versions of the website being the same. Though no doubt having obvious attractions from the website management point of view, this proves slightly frustrating, as there appears to be no method of restricting your quest to Sotheby's operations in the UK alone. This might not matter, except that the amount of information here is so huge.

The search box that heads the homepage is immediately inviting and, if you know exactly what you are looking for, is a simple way to enter the website. Its efficiency is impressive, instantly producing, for example, 200 matches for the word 'Belleek', all linking to entirely relevant items in a number of different sales. As a first-time visitor, however, you may find using the blue tabs at the top of the page, an easier way in. Clicking on any one tab produces a set of sub-links in the grey bar immediately below.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The first important thing to realise is that Auctions Online and Auction House are separate, not covering the same ground. Bidding requires registration first.

Sotheby's Connoisseur offers a number of articles about specialist topics by Sotheby's experts. Calendar lists both exhibitions and forthcoming sales, with onward links (always underlined) that take you to further details of such events, often with online catalogues available for reading, and thumbnail illustrations where clicking produces an enlarged image. Shop Sotheby's takes you to publications, either Sotheby's own catalogues past and present, or a bookshop specialising in titles (some 'hard to find') about art and antiques. Sotheby's Services includes such items as Financial Services (where, among other things, you can arrange to borrow against the value of your collection, the minimum borrowing - yes, minimum - being half a million pounds!) and Restoration, leading to details of Sotheby's own in-house restorers.

About Sotheby's offers, under Corporate Information, a short review of Sotheby's history. While it may skate over the recent troubles of the firm, it still makes very interesting reading.

Site Search, the last of the tabs, produces a grey box at the bottom of the page, where you can find lists of Sotheby's Associates (more than 4,500 dealers) and Auction Results (prices achieved at recent sales), for which you need exact details of sale and lot numbers. This last is also available from the Auction House link.