New man at the helm of Dreweatts 1759

Jonathan Pratt returns to Newbury to take up role at auction house

Dreweatts is delighted to announce the appointment of Jonathan Pratt as Managing Director of Dreweatts 1759, at Donnington Priory.

This will be the third time that Jonathan has worked at Dreweatts and the Newbury auction house is close to his own boyhood home and his family still live in the area.

Jonathan said: "I see this appointment as somewhat of a homecoming. I have extremely fond memories of my previous tenures at Dreweatts, the first of which was in 1991.

"At the time I worked on the hugely successful Fawley Court house sale and this really served as my baptism into the auction business. I am thrilled to have this opportunity and am delighted to be working for one of the largest and most respected auction houses outside London."

Jonathan went to Shaw House school and then studied Fine Art & Chattels Valuation at Southampton before working in Edinburgh at Philips Auctioneers as a furniture porter.

After that he moved to Phillips in Guildford, then enjoyed roles as a valuer both at a London valuation company and Dreweatts. He then joined Sotheby’s Sussex in 2002.

In 2005 Jonathan became Managing Director of Bellmans where he oversaw a five fold increase in the firm’s turnover and introduced a streamlined three-tier sale system.

He is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and he makes regular appearances on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt and Flog It.