Abbott and Holder

{{Use dmy dates|date= February 2019}}

{{Use British English|date= February 2019}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Abbott and Holder

| image = Abbott and Holder - letterhead - 1969.png

| image_caption = Letterhead, as used in 1969, listing Eric Holder, John Abbott and Anna Holder

| type = Art dealers

| founded = {{Start date|1936}}

| founders = {{Plainlist|

• Robert Abbott
• Eric Holder

}}

| hq_location_city = 30 Museum Street, Camden, London, England
{{Coord|51.5178712|-0.1259238|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| num_employees =

| num_employees_year =

| website = {{Official URL}}

}}

File:Museum Street 02.JPG: Abbott and Holder is the fourth building in on the left with the pale blue frontage]]

File:Harry Becker - BW49.jpg, offered for sale by Abbott and Holder in 2017. ]]

Abbott and Holder is an art gallery and dealership in London, England, that specialises in low-price, 19th- and 20th-century English paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints.{{cite web |last1=Gleadell |first1=Colin |title=Under a grand: Abbott and Holder |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3650374/Under-a-grand-Abbott-and-Holder.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |accessdate=8 February 2019 |date=21 February 2006}}{{cite web |last1=Pandya |first1=Nick |title=Under the hammer: Art works |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2003/dec/13/alternativeinvestment.jobsandmoney |work=The Guardian |accessdate=8 February 2019 |date=13 December 2003}} The gallery has been located at 30 Museum Street, London WC1 since 1987.{{cite web |title=Abbott and Holder Ltd |url=https://www.bada.org/dealer/abbott-and-holder-ltd |publisher=BADA |accessdate=8 February 2019}}{{cite web |title=Abbott and Holder Ltd |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/organisation/abbott-and-holder-ltd |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts |accessdate=8 February 2019}}

The company was founded by and named after Robert Abbott, a former headmaster and a Quaker minister,{{cite news |title=John Abbott |url=http://www.abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/John-Abbott-Obit.pdf |work=The Times |date=28 April 2012}} and non-theist Quaker Eric Holder, an accountant and lifelong conscientious objector who joined the FAU during the Second World War. The pair first dealt art jointly in 1936 {{cite web |title=Abbott and Holder |url=http://www.worksonpaperfair.com/abbott-and-holder.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208221509/http://www.worksonpaperfair.com/abbott-and-holder.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=8 February 2016 |website=Works on Paper Fair |accessdate=8 February 2019}} after meeting at the Friends' Meeting House, Tottenham, where Robert Abbott lived in a flat attached to the House (the original Tottenham FMH was demolished in 1961), with the first 'List' published in 1942. In 1947 Robert Abbott and Eric Holder bought 73 Castelnau, SW13, from Frederick Tisdall on a seventeen-year lease. In 1957, the year before Eric Holder's youngest daughter Sally was born, the freehold of 73 was acquired. Robert retired on health grounds in 1959 and Eric bought Robert's share of business and Castelnau. In 1969, Anna Holder was listed on the company's letterhead and the family helped in running the business. Robert's nephew John Abbott (1937–2011), who had worked for the firm in the 1960s, became a partner in 1971. Eric Holder retired in 1981 and Philip Athill,Philip is nephew and heir to literary editor, novelist and memoirist Diana Athill an art history graduate and assistant at the gallery from 1979, eventually the company's Managing Director, became a partner in 1984. John Abbott retired in 2001.{{cite web |title=Gallery History |url=http://www.abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk/history/ |publisher=Abbott and Holder |accessdate=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124402/http://www.abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk/history/ |archive-date=9 February 2019 |url-status=dead }} On 31 March 2021 Athill announced on the gallery's website that he had on his retirement passed the business to junior director Tom Edwards, thereby maintaining an unbroken line of successful partnership since 1936.{{cite web |title=The List |url=https://www.abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210408154648/https://www.abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk/ |archive-date=8 April 2021}}

Before moving to Museum Street, the gallery occupied part of a house at 73 Castelnau, Barnes, which had been Robert Abbott's home.{{cite web |title=History of art in Barnes |url=http://barnesartists.org/history-of-art-in-barnes/ |website=Barnes Artists |accessdate=8 February 2019 }} The large Victorian property belonged to the Eric Holder family from 1959 to 1981, with 'the business' occupying the basement and ground floor.

As well as general sales, promoted with a monthly-updated "list", the gallery holds topical and artist-specific exhibitions,{{cite web |last1=James |first1=David |title=An exhibition of work by RS Thomas' wife Mildred Eldridge |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/exhibition-work-rs-thomas-wife-12834478 |website=Wales Online |accessdate=8 February 2019 |date=2 April 2017}}{{cite web |title=A spy with an eye for fashion |url=https://www.christies.com/features/Stonehouse_Vogue-5333-1.aspx |publisher=Christie's |accessdate=8 February 2019 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=From cartoons to Mediterranean art |url=https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120418/arts-entertainment/From-cartoons-to-Mediterranean-art.415934 |work=Times of Malta |accessdate=8 February 2019}}{{cite web|title=The Camp in the Oatfield|url=http://www.millicentsutherlandambulance.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230162625/http://www.millicentsutherlandambulance.com/ |archive-date= 30 December 2013 |url-status=dead |publisher=Abbott and Holder Ltd.}} occasionally including living artists.{{cite web |title=The ARTS Interview: Botanical Artist, Jess Shepherd |url=https://theecologist.org/2017/feb/01/arts-interview-botanical-artist-jess-shepherd |website=The Ecologist |accessdate=8 February 2019 }}{{cite web |title=Abbott and Holder Ltd : Prue Cooper - Slipware dishes |url=http://www.studiopottery.co.uk/event_profile.php?id=4141 |website=Studio Pottery |accessdate=8 February 2019 |language=en}} In 1960, Eric Holder invited Reginald Gray to hold his first London solo exhibition at the gallery.{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Reginald |author-link1=Reginald Gray (artist) |title=Eric Holder |url=http://reginaldgray.blogspot.com/ |website=Reginald Gray Portraits |date=15 November 2007 |accessdate=10 February 2019}} In 1961, Gray painted Holder's portrait.

The gallery's clients have included the UK Government Art Collection{{cite web |title=John Bluck - Twenty-four Views taken in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, Abyssinia & Egypt|url=https://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/gacdb/search.php?mode=show&id=25402 |website=Government Art Collection |accessdate=8 February 2019}} and Abbott and Holder's near neighbour, the British Museum.{{cite web |title=drawing |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=726545&partId=1&people=102862&peoA=102862-2-9&page=5 |website=British Museum |accessdate=8 February 2019}} Over four hundred and fifty works on paper at the British Museum have come from them. Many other prominent institutions from around the world also have work that passed their hands including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/626022?ft=poynter&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=2 |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art: Studies of "Fortitude" and "Purity" for the Mosaic "St. George and the Dragon", by Edward John Poynter}}

Abbott and Holder are members of the British Antique Dealers' Association.{{cite web |title=British Antique Dealers' Association |url=https://www.cinoa.org/cinoa/association?association=8 |publisher=CINOA |accessdate=10 February 2019}}