Why Grosvenor ?

In a week consumed by catalogue production – another 3,000 lots are heading your way in a week of sales in November – we reflect on how it all began.  Much has changed since we laboured to produce  the first Grosvenor catalogue back in 1997.

From time to time we are asked the origin of our company name and I have to admit that sometimes we adjust our answer according to the mood of the moment.

The choosing of a name for a new company, however, is no small matter and back in 1997 when Nick Mansell, Andrew Claridge and I launched what was intended to be the first major public auction house for stamps and postal history in central London in decades there was much discussion about the banner that we would fly.

It would have been easy to “miss-choose”. In the early years of the last century my great-grandfather ran excursions in motorised tourist coaches called “torpedo cars” from premises that he named “Torpedo House” in Torquay. After the First World War the name had to be changed, the association with untimely death being judged bad for business.

Nothing too ‘modern’ then, we thought, so names like “WeSellAnyLot.com” were definitely out of the question.

“Grosvenor”, though, was an old name strongly associated with both central London and Tunbridge Wells, the latter being, among other connections, the home of our accountants. As I recall it was the first name on Nick’s list of suggestions.

The “Grosvenor Arms” in Mayfair, just off Bond Street, had also been a favourite watering hole where stamp describers from different companies would meet to unwind and criticise the poor management that they experienced from their employers. The business of auctioning stamps could be carried out in a much more efficient and friendly manner, it was usually decided. Indeed, after we had started “Grosvenor”, I was told by other former Harmers employees that we were by no means the first to have reached this conclusion. We were just the first to test the theory.

The reason for the regular appearance of the “Grosvenor” name is of course that it is the family name of the Dukes of Westminster who still own rather large chunks of central London. For me the name’s origin was the clincher – “Gros Veneur” (in Norman French) meaning the “Great Hunter”.

The auction is a hunt, an experience shared by the buyer, who must identify and acquire his “prey” in the face of possibly fierce opposition, and by us in our constant quest to bring fresh properties to the market.

Tally Ho !

JG