Abbott and Holder is an art gallery and dealership in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, that specialises in low-price, 19th- and 20th-century English paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints. The gallery has been located at 30

Museum Street Museum Street is a street in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, England. To the north is the British Museum, hence its current name. The street is populated by cafes and bookshops to appeal to the international museum-going p ...

, London WC1 since 1987. The company was founded by and named after Robert Abbott, a former headmaster and a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

minister, and non-theist Quaker Eric Holder, an accountant and lifelong

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

who joined the FAU during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The pair first dealt art jointly in 1936 after meeting at the Friends' Meeting House, Tottenham, where Robert Abbott lived in a flat attached to the House (the original Tottenham FMH was demolished in 1961), with the first 'List' published in 1942. In 1947 Robert Abbott and Eric Holder bought 73 Castelnau, SW13, from Frederick Tisdall on a seventeen-year lease. In 1957, the year before Eric Holder's youngest daughter Sally was born, the freehold of 73 was acquired. Robert retired on health grounds in 1959 and Eric bought Robert's share of business and Castelnau. In 1969, Anna Holder was listed on the company's letterhead and the family helped in running the business. Robert's nephew John Abbott (1937–2011), who had worked for the firm in the 1960s, became a partner in 1971. Eric Holder retired in 1981 and Philip Athill, an art history graduate and assistant at the gallery from 1979, eventually the company's Managing Director, became a partner in 1984. John Abbott retired in 2001. On 31 March 2021 Athill announced on the gallery's website that he had on his retirement passed the business to junior director Tom Edwards, thereby maintaining an unbroken line of successful partnership since 1936. Before moving to Museum Street, the gallery occupied part of a house at 73 Castelnau, Barnes, which had been Robert Abbott's home. The large Victorian property belonged to the Eric Holder family from 1959 to 1981, with 'the business' occupying the basement and ground floor. As well as general sales, promoted with a monthly-updated "list", the gallery holds topical and artist-specific exhibitions, occasionally including living artists. In 1960, Eric Holder invited Reginald Gray to hold his first London solo exhibition at the gallery. In 1961, Gray painted Holder's portrait. The gallery's clients have included the UK

Government Art Collection The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in t ...

and Abbott and Holder's near neighbour, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Over four hundred works on paper at the British Museum have come from them. Abbott and Holder are members of the

British Antique Dealers' Association The British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) was founded in London, 1918. It is Britain's leading trade association for art and antique dealers and its members are carefully vetted and selected for their experience and professional integrity, ...

References

External links

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Articles
in the

Antiques Trade Gazette Auction Technology Group is a publishing business based in London. It publishes ''Antiques Trade Gazette'' which is a London-based weekly publication and website serving the art and antiques community. The print publication has around 16,000 su ...

{{Authority control Art dealers from London Art museums and galleries in London 1936 establishments in England Companies based in the London Borough of Camden Art galleries established in 1936

References

Further reading

External links