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Nicholas Somers

Nicholas Somers of Moss Harris & Sons, London, established 1868, and Somers at the Sign of the Chair, Worcester, established 1971.

n-somers-2016

A conversation between Nicholas Somers and project Lead, Mark Westgarth. This interview is the second interview in an extension to the Oral Histories project, called 'BADA Voices', and which is supported by the British Antique Dealers' Association.

Before establishing his antique business in Worcester in 1971, Nicholas Somers began his career in the antique trade working for some high-profile antique dealers; starting with the well-known dealer Paul Smith, in Ludlow in 1965, then working for Richard Grose in London, before Nicholas eventually worked at the world-renowned English Furniture dealers Moss Harris & Sons, from 1967.

In this interview Nicholas recalls his memories of Robert Harris and the firm of M.Harris & Sons, and on his extraordinarily rich and varied life in the antique trade from the 1960s to the present day.  As the interview reveals, as well as being a succesful antique dealer, Nicholas also worked in the auction world, and was part of the management buy-out team that acquired the auctioneers Bearnes, Torquay, from the firm of Sotheby's during the 1980s.  Nicholas also operated as an antiques agent, and more recently as a 'Forensic Appraiser' and Expert Witness for art and antiques legal cases in the Law Courts.  This is a fascinating interview with someone with an astonishingly varied career in the world of antiques.

Photograph Antique Dealer project, University of Leeds, 2016.