·        The sale of Ava Gardner’s personal collection (November 1990): “My first project was handling the legendary actress's collection, which taught me about the enduring power of celebrity.”

·         The Stansted Park Country House sale (October 1999): “My very first performance on the rostrum, selling Lady Charlotte Schreiber's ceramics collection in a marquee; I was whiter than the porcelain, and yet gripped by this newfound power.”

·         The Grimani Tables (December 2015), a stand-alone sale of two of the grandest pietre dure table tops ever made. A white-glove, two-lot sale: “Small is sweet!”

·         The Chatsworth Attic Sale (October 2010): “Pumping out the River Derwent, which threatened to flood our marquee, I felt like Noah the Auctioneer.”

·         The game-changing Damien Hirst sale, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” (September 2008): “While Lehman Bros and the banking system seemed to be collapsing, I was selling a zebra in a tank of formaldehyde. It was an epic contrast.”