Founded in Cheshire in 1955, Wilson55 - previously Peter Wilson Fine Art Auctioneers - holds a full calendar of specialist auctions each year, across both long-established and newer collecting fields.
We've invested in technology to give clients a modern online experience. Our sales run on three bidding platforms in the UK and overseas, and our own live bidding platform, Wilson Live, is free to use through our website.
Our saleroom covers more than 8,500 square feet across three showrooms, which gives us the space to present your items well. We're long-standing members of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers, and our team appears regularly on television, including Bargain Hunt, Antiques Road Trip, Dickinson's Real Deal and The Great Auction Showdown.
Above all, you get a team that knows its categories and looks after clients, whether you've bought and sold at auction many times or are new to it.
Our history
Wilson55 is named after its founder, J.D. "Peter" Wilson. After leaving the agricultural auctioneers Henry Manley, Peter set up his own business in 1955 on Welsh Row, Nantwich. In the early years the firm focused on agriculture and estate agency, and with his partner David Morgan-Wynne it grew to sixteen offices across South Cheshire and Stoke-on-Trent by 1985.
Through the house-clearance boom of the 1970s and 1980s the business built a strong chattels auction arm, holding sales first in Nantwich's market hall and later in the Civic Hall. In 1977 it acquired Nantwich Church School, which is still the company's home today. Robert Stones was appointed saleroom manager in 1982.
In 1985 the Halifax Building Society acquired the business and rebranded it Henry Spencer & Sons. The arrangement proved difficult, and in 1991 David Morgan-Wynne and Robert Stones bought back the auction business, reinstated the Peter Wilson name and focused solely on auctions. They purchased the freehold of the Market Street premises in 1997.
David Morgan-Wynne retired in 2002, and the saleroom was refurbished in 2003 with new facilities and technology. In 2020 the company changed its name to Wilson55, a nod to its founding year, as it moved further online.
In 2023 Robert Stones retired and long-standing paintings specialist Stephen Sparrow took over the business, which he leads today.