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The superb premises of Coudray (Eure-et-Loir), at the gates of Chartres, provide a setting for the activities of auctioneers from The Chartres Gallery for eight years now.
A functional, modern setting, which is added in a very complementary way to the Sainte-Foy chapel 16th century which proudly stands in the heart of the city. Over the decades, La Galerie de Chartres has been able to evolve in step with society and the episode of the Covid-19 pandemic and confinement has caused the online sales and consolidated the areas of expertise of this study.
Four major flagship themes
The Coudray room was designed by Mr.eJean-Pierre Lelièvre associated to Pascal Maiche and Alain Paris. At the retirement of Jean-Pierre Lelièvre, Elsa gody-baubau and Caroline Riviere joined the association to offer today a quartet at the head of La Galerie de Chartres.
Finally, a quintet because Jean-Pierre Lelièvre is still very present for the transmission of his field of expertise. In this case the old toys.
In other words, a team sized like never before to respond to both growing activity and new sales methods, particularly dematerialized, and specialization in certain particularly popular themes.
The auction house is thus part of a grouping, the ivory group, which organizes large international sales. And in this area, La Galerie de Chartres has been able to position itself at the forefront in the field of photography and you pre-cinema, in the old toys, the dolls and the collections.
Exceptional sales have enabled the Chartres auction house to establish its notoriety thanks to record sales, for example with a set of Félix Teynard negatives setting a world record in 2013.
The explosion of online sales
This international influence, the Galerie de Chartres wanted to strengthen it, thanks to the new expertise and appetites brought by Elsa Gody-Baubau and Caroline Rivière, in particular in the current trends in vintage and retro-gaming toys but also in old motorcycles, a completely successful bet since the room was more than packed and the atmosphere unique during the first sale. It will be renewed in September.
The objective is to continue the development of digitization because the period of confinement has clearly caused demand to explode. We have seen a new clientele arrive towards us who have realized that we can indulge ourselves at all prices and in complete confidence.
This new clientele was also sometimes very reserved with the idea of pushing the door of an auction room. The place can impress with its staging, its rituals, its codes.
But the television shows that flourish have the merit of democratizing these auctions. Internet sites also contribute, but the expertise of a local auctioneer brings the assurance of guaranteed expertise.
In two years “we went from 20 to 80% of online sales »Notes Elsa Gody-Baubau. Suffice to say a huge acceleration to which it was necessary to respond. Because putting objects online is particularly time-consuming with multiple photos, texts, hooks. But these new buyers quickly become passionate and set up alerts on the site Interenchères.
During the confinement we were 100% online so we had to relearn how to sell, to interact with a remote audience, to furnish, not to think of yourself alone in a large room!
And then, it is the logistical link that has been strengthened to allow shipments all over the world safely.
M6’s “A treasure in your house” adventure
Elsa Gody-Baubau’s journey is quite interesting and reveals new trends in the world of voluntary sales.
After studying law and political science, she had to do an internship and opted for a study where she discovered the job of auctioneer. A real click and, at 25, she reoriented herself towards this specialization.
She multiplies internships in auction houses before being hired in Saint-Germain-en-Laye then finding herself embarking on the television adventure of A treasure in your house from M6.
She sees in it, more than the media presence, an excellent opportunity to make the profession known to as many people as possible. She is also convinced that the future will be audiovisual and digital.
She has a hollow nose since she is hired by an international online platform, Catawiki. An enriching experience, but she keeps in mind the idea of getting closer to a house she particularly likes, the Galerie de Chartres.
“The Galerie de Chartres has it all! “
Chartres, already to get closer to his mother who lives there, but above all for “the quality of expertise and the state of mind that reigns there, this auction house has it all!” “
In his view, we are only at the beginnings of an evolution in the field of auctions.
I am totally convinced that there is a considerable public which has not yet been captured and which, gradually, is discovering this universe through online sales. In addition, it can be totally in a logic of eco-consumption, we can afford unique furniture that is completely affordable.
With her colleague Caroline Rivière, the two auctioneers shared Jean-Pierre Lelièvre’s expertise, old toys for Caroline, dolls for Elsa, among others, of course. They were employed in August 2019 before becoming partners last September.
It must be said that the surprises fall with each sale almost when old metal boats reach 50-100,000 € or dolls exceed 40,000 €!
Pascal Maiche, for his part, has for his predilection the old cameras and the pre-cinema.
The Galerie de Chartres in figures
■ One to two sales per week on weekends and Tuesdays
■ 15 employees
■ 4 associate auctioneers
■ From 35 to 40,000 items sold each year
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From underwater archeology to the ivory hammer!
Last arrival with Elsa, Caroline Rivière also has a particularly unusual career. The young woman, baccalaureate in her pocket, turned to biology and then to a bi-degree in law and art history in Paris.
She was supposed to prepare to be an auctioneer but she saw herself rather an underwater archaeologist!
She went to Austria for a year and, on returning, continued her master’s degree in both subjects. This makes her meet an auctioneer in Dijon and, gradually, she also catches the virus “the sets, the codes, the rhythm, the universe, I liked everything!” “
She misses her exam for the first time, branches off to theLouvre School but validates it on the second attempt and leaves for Dijon for his internship. She continues with a large Parisian house which makes her discover the prestigious auction houses, Drouot or Sotheby’s.
In 2014 she was hired in Argenteuil where she refined her approach and developed digital. She meets Elsa, with whom the current flows immediately, they have the same vision of the profession.
The real strength of the Galerie de Chartres is to focus on collectors thanks to the work accomplished by Jean-Pierre Lelièvre in old toys and dolls in particular. I recovered tin toys from around 1800 to 1850, cars, boats, trains …
More recently, his specialization has also been oriented towards vintage, the plastic revolution with the fascination of Super hero and the rétro-gaming with the first video game consoles.
In the end, there you go fifty years that the Galerie de Chartres has become an expert in this field of antique toys, a precious longevity for a unique expertise.
► Upcoming sales
■ Saturday July 3, 2021 : At 9:30 am: Toys: boats, cars, planes, mechanical toys, Meccano, steam engines… At 2:30 pm: railway including Jep, Hornby, Märklin, Bing, LR, Edobaud… Toys – Trains – Dolls – Automata.
■ Tuesday July 6, 2021 : Around the doll. At 9:30 a.m. and at 2 p.m.
■ Thursday July 22, 2021 : Vintage toys, super heroes, retro gaming… At 2pm.
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Hello
Can you please tell me when your next sale for Antique Dolls will be. Would like to buy a catalogue. Thank you. Frances Co