Nic Somers is an auctioneer and valuer with more than 40 years’ experience. He is the principal of Nicholas Somers and Company, a valuation and consultancy firm specialising in independent reports for Court relating to antiques and the fine and decorative arts. He frequently appears as an expert witness in Crown, County and High Courts.

His long career in art and antiques began in the mid 1960s in Shropshire as an auctioneer, then dealer. In 1967 he moved to London where he gained experience of the finest English furniture with one of the top London dealers – Royal Warrant holders M. Harris & Sons. Fond memories of those days include travelling to work in bowler hat with a tightly rolled umbrella and the cordon bleu lunches served on the premises for all staff.

During the 1970s he ran his own gallery in Worcestershire, before joining Sotheby’s Bond Street and then working in the West Country. From 1982 to 1990 he was a director of Bearnes Fine Art Auctioneers in Torquay, following a management buy-out from Sotheby’s.

He served as chairman of the Antiques and Fine Art Committee of the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers from 1995 to 1997 and chaired the Antiques and Arts Faculty of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors 2003-2006. Nic was a founder member of the Guild of Arts Scholars and is a Past Master of The Worshipful Company of Turners.

Nic has an abiding interest in all objects made of wood. He has long been a collector of treen and more recently has amassed an impressive collection of contemporary turned bowls and objects. He was the co-organiser of an exhibition on the importance of the craft of the turner in furniture and decorative arts, mounted by the Guild of Arts Scholars as part of The Worshipful Company of Turners’ Wizardry in Wood events in 2008 and 2015.