Bonhams and Butterfield was a large American

auction house An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

, founded in 1865 by William Butterfield in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. It was purchased in 1999 from

Bernard Osher Bernard Osher (born 1927) is an American businessman, best known for his work as a philanthropist. Life and career Osher was born to a Jewish family and raised in Biddeford, Maine. In 1948, he graduated with a B.A. from Bowdoin College. He s ...

by online auctioneer

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

for $260 million."EBay Poised To Sell Butterfields Auction Division". ''E-Commerce News'', August 1 2002.
/ref> In 2002, it was acquired from

by British auctioneer Bonhams and operated under the name Bonhams & Butterfields for about ten years. It now just goes by Bonhams.

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External links

* EBay American auction houses American companies established in 1865 Retail companies established in 1865 1999 mergers and acquisitions 2002 mergers and acquisitions {{US-company-stub