Before the skyscrapers of Sandton and the bustle of the CBD, Johannesburg was a dusty triangle of land known as Randjeslaagte. In 1886, the air was thick with “gold fever,” but it wasn’t just the mines that were making fortunes, it was the auction block. As we look at the thriving auction industry in South…
South African auction history played a central role in commerce. Long before modern auction halls, online bidding, and industrial liquidations, auctions were already shaping trade, settlement, and asset distribution at the Cape of Good Hope. Auctions at the Cape of Good Hope, 1600s The first recorded auctions in South Africa date back to the mid…
When you raise a paddle at a Grand Oak Auction today, you are participating in a tradition that spans millennia. While modern auctions in Johannesburg might feature industrial machinery, antiques, or real estate, the earliest recorded auctions were a far more human affair. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the first documented auctions took place…