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AUCTIONS

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 895 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AUCTIONS and AUCTIONEERS. An See also:

auction (See also:Lat. audio, increase) is a proceeding at which See also:people are invited to compete for the See also:purchase of See also:property by successive offers of advancing sums. The advantages of conducting a See also:sale in this way are obvious, and we naturally find that auctions are of See also:great antiquity. See also:Herodotus describes a See also:custom which prevailed in Babylonian villages of disposing of the maidens in See also:marriage by delivering them to the highest bidders in an See also:assembly annually held for the purpose (See also:Book i. 196). So also among the See also:Romans the See also:quaestor sold military See also:booty and captives in See also:war by auction—sub pasta—the See also:spear being the See also:symbol of quiritarian ownership. The familiarity of such proceedings is forcibly suggested by the conduct of the Praetorian Guard when Sulpicianus was treating for the imperial dignity after the See also:murder of See also:Pertinax. Apprehending that they would not obtain a sufficient See also:price by private See also:contract, the See also:Praetorians proclaimed from their ramparts that the See also:Roman See also:world was to be disposed of by public auction to the best See also:bidder. Thereupon See also:Julian proceeded to the See also:foot of the ramparts and outbid his competitor (See also:Gibbon, vol. i. ch. v.). Though, however, auctions were undoubtedly See also:common among the Romans both in public and private transactions, the rules whereby they were governed are by no means clearly enunciated in the Corpus furls See also:Civilis. In See also:England the method of conducting auctions has varied. In some places it has been usual to set up an See also:inch of lighted See also:candle, the See also:person making the last bid before the fall of the See also:wick becoming the purchaser.

By an See also:

act of See also:William. III. (1698), this method of sale was prescribed for goods and merchandise imported from the See also:East Indies. See also:Lord See also:Eldon speaks of "candle-stick biddings," where the several bidders did mot know what the others had offered. A " dumb bidding " was the name given to a proceeding at which a price was put by the owner under a See also:candlestick with a stipulation that no bidding should avail if not equal to it. In a " Dutch auction " property is offered at a certain price and then successively at See also:lower prices until one is accepted. According to the practice now usual in England, a proposed auction is duly advertised, and a printed See also:catalogue in the See also:case of chattels, or particulars of sale in the case of See also:land, together with conditions of sale, are circulated. Sometimes, in sales of goods, the conditions are merely suspended in the auction See also:room. At the appointed See also:time and See also:place, the auctioneer, See also:standing in a See also:desk or rostrum, " puts up " the several lots in turn by inviting biddings from the See also:company See also:present. He announces the See also:acceptance of the last bid by a tap with his See also:hammer and so "knocks down " the See also:lot to the person who has made it. Sometimes property is offered on See also:lease to the highest bidder. " Roup " is the Scottish See also:term for an auction.

A bid in itself is only an offer, and may accordingly be retracted at any time before its acceptance by the fall of the hammer or otherwise. Puffing is unlawful. Unless a right to bid is expressly reserved on behalf of the vendor, he must neither bid himself nor employ any oneelse to bid. When a right to bid has been expressly reserved, the seller or any one person (but no more) on his behalf may bid at the auction. If it is simply announced that the sale is to be subject to a reserved or upset price, no bidding by or on behalf of the seller is permissible: it is only lawful to declare by some appropriate terms that the property is withdrawn. Where a sale is expressed to be without reserve, or where an upset price has been reached, the auctioneer must, after the See also:

lapse of a reasonable See also:interval, accept the bid of the highest See also:bona fide bidder. By not doing so he would render the vendor liable in See also:damages. The auctioneer must not make a pretence of receiving bids which are not in fact made, as it would be fraudulent to run up the price by such an artifice. A "knock-out" is a See also:combination of persons to prevent competition between them-selves at an auction by an arrangement that only one of their number shall bid, and that anything obtained by him shall be afterwards disposed of privately among themselves. Such a combination is not illegal. A " See also:mock auction " is a proceeding at which persons conspire by artifice to make it appear, contrary to the fact, that a bona fide sale is being conducted, and so See also:attempt to induce the public to purchase articles at prices far above their value. Those who invite the public to enter the room where the supposed auction is proceeding, or otherwise endeavour to attract bidders, are called " barkers." A See also:conspiracy to defraud in this way is an indictable offence.

See also:

American See also:law is in See also:general the same as the See also:English law with regard to auctions. As to bidding by the vendor, however, it is less stringent. For, though puffing or by-bidding, as it is often called, will, under both systems alike, render an auction sale voidable at the See also:option of a purchaser when it amounts to See also:fraud, the See also:weight of authority in the See also:United States is in favour of the view that an owner may, without See also:notice, employ a person to bid for him, if he does so with no other purpose than to prevent a See also:sacrifice of the property under a given price. By a See also:charter of See also:Henry VII., confirmed by See also:Charles I., the business of selling by auction was confined to an officer called an outroper, and all other persons were prohibited from selling goods or merchandise by public claim or outcry (see Henry See also:Blackstone's Reports, vol. ii. p. 557). The only qualification now required by an auctioneer is a Ii' ence on which a See also:duty of £10 has to be paid, and which mist be renewed before the 5th of See also:July in each See also:year. A liability to a See also:penalty of £loo is incurred by acting as an auctioneer without being duly licensed. The duty formerly imposed upon the purchase-See also:money payable by virtue of a sale at auction was abolished by an act of 1845. An auctioneer is See also:bound under a penalty of £20 to see that his full name and address are displayed before the commencement of an auction and during its continuance in the place where he conducts it. He is the See also:agent of the vendor only, except in so far that, after he has knocked down a lot to the highest bidder, he has authority to affix the name of the latter to a memorandum of the transaction, so as to render the contract of sale enforceable where written See also:evidence is necessary. An auctioneer does not, by merely announcing that a sale of certain articles will take place, render himself liable to those who, in consequence, attend at the time and place advertised, if the sale is not in fact proceeded with, provided he acts in See also:good faith. One of the See also:chief risks run by an auctioneer is that of being held liable for the See also:conversion of goods which he has sold upon the instructions of a person whom he believed to be the owner, but who in fact had no right to dispose of them.

The number of auctioneers' licences issued during the year ended the 31st of See also:

March 1908 was in England 6639, in See also:Scotland 76o, and in See also:Ireland 839. A central organization having its headquarters in See also:London, the Auctioneers' See also:Institute of the United See also:Kingdom, was founded in 1886, in See also:order to elevate the status and further the interests of auctioneers, See also:estate agents and valuers. It has nearly 2000 members. (H.

End of Article: AUCTIONS

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