Gorringe's

Gorringe's of Lewes, East Sussex is an auction house that was founded in 1929 by Rowland Gorringe, a partner in the local estate agent Martin & Gorringe. The family ran the company when it stepped back from day-to-day running in the 1960s, although it retained a substantial ownership share in the business.

It was later part owned by husband and wife Philip and Sally Taylor, who have worked at Gorringe’s since accepting a partnership in 1981, and Clifford Lansberry, who joined the firm in 1994 and was made managing partner in 2023.

In 2025, the Gorringe family again became the outright owner of the firm following the sale by three of its former managing partners, with Oliver Searle, the great-grandson of Rowland Gorringe, taking on the role of executive director.


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Sermons and rabbiting on

21 February 2022

Two very different lots from a Sussex sale are noted here: a German manuscript of Lenten sermons and the tale of a toy rabbit.

Robin Fletcher and Steven Fyfe

Antiques specialists team up for their own antiques road trip for charity

22 January 2022

Dealer Steven Fyfe of Spencelayhs Antiques of Cambridgeshire and Robin Fletcher of Bentley’s Fine Art Auctioneers have embarked on a road trip to buy and sell antiques to raise money for their chosen charity.

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Mauchlineware suited to a tee

29 November 2021

The game of golf (originating on the eastern coast of Scotland) and mauchlineware (the name given to a family of wooden souvenirs made in south-west Scotland over a period of a century) would seem ideal bedfellows.

Photographs of Prince Charles as a boy

The Real Crown: Two collections giving an insight into royal life emerge at auction

11 November 2021

For royal watchers in the saleroom, the latter part of 2021 promises to be quite a boon.

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Pick of the week: Small Old Master packs a Canaletto price punch

04 October 2021

A Venetian painting attributed to the great Canaletto (1697-1798) was offered at Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) latest auction, selling for £300,000.

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Chinese vases sell over 200-times estimate in East Sussex

27 September 2021

Estimated at £100-150, this pair of 4in (11cm) Chinese vases sold for an estimate-busting £39,000 at Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Lewes.

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‘Canaletto’ Venetian scene surfaces in Lewes

16 August 2021

A painting of Venice’s Dogana da Mar painted from the Bacino di San Marco which has been attributed to Canaletto (1697-1768) will be offered at Gorringe’s of Lewes in the autumn.

Constable watercolour

‘Elegy’ from 1836 reveals original John Constable watercolours

07 June 2021

Discovered lying unrecognised on a bookcase in a Sussex cottage, a unique edition of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard will be offered at Gorringe’s this month with a £100,000-150,000 estimate.

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Two single-owner collections of Orientalists works highlight Sussex sale with worldwide appeal

19 April 2021

Two English Orientalists made the biggest impression at a recent sale at Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Lewes.

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Galway silver shines in Lewes auction

19 April 2021

The West as well as the East made a major contribution to the success of Gorringe’s £1m sale on March 30 where, overall, 86% of the 593 lots sold.

Gorringe's

New recruits at Bonhams and Gorringe’s are the latest Movers & Shakers

15 April 2021

Appointments at auction houses in the UK and US and an anniversary in Germany are the latest updates in the art and antiques sector.

 Apollino

Pick of the week: Apollino copy that stands up for itself

12 April 2021

This copy of the Uffizi’s Medici Apollo (Apollino) is signed for the Italian sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (c.1716-99).

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Modernist market thrives for Grima and Gard

12 April 2021

Dawsons’ (23% buyer’s premium) dedicated Jewellery, Watches & Silver auction in Maidenhead on March 11 included two unusual signed pieces by flavour-of-the-month Andrew Grima (1921-2007).

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Bidders on the scent of an 1810 ‘classic head’ US coin

11 January 2021

Some of the best US coin discoveries are today made in the UK.

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‘Earliest dated Irish glass’ sells at auction

04 January 2021

What is perhaps the earliest dated piece of Irish glass sold at auction in Lewes.

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Broken and reglued but still sold at £200,000

04 January 2021

A recent fine art auction at Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) included a once magnificent Qianlong (1735-99) copper-red and underglaze blue lantern vase.

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Ewe beauty: Rice collection in demand

05 October 2020

Further pieces from English porcelain specialist’s collection are among highlights in Lewes.

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Affordable art: Three works sold for under £600 including a William Wyllie marine

03 August 2020

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

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Children’s author gets sale off to flying start

18 May 2020

The name of the Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001) may not be as familiar in the UK as that of many other creators of children’s favourites.

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Remarkable Rice collection of porcelain dispersed at Gorringe’s

04 May 2020

Across the past 13 months Gorringe’s (21% buyer’s premium) in Lewes has dispersed the remarkable assemblage of English porcelain formed by the collector and academic Dr Dennis G Rice.

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