Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers | Stansted

If you like mooching along to local auctions this is one to get to . Modern eco friendly building lends itself strangely well to all the antiquities inside . Regular general sale but also very high brow sales are always on the agenda . Must stop buying things I don't need ! Very addictive. Excellent food and coffee . Very professionally run

lovely place, lots to offer from fine arts to gucci suitcases and old tools. Very good furniture is up for a chance to get a good deal on!! plenty of parking around and nice staff to help around!

Best looking auction house I have seen Ina while. Quality of products, beats many of the London auction houses hands down!

I entered an item into the specialist design sale with Sworders.
This item from the 60s was in perfect condition. Whilst in their care it received extensive damage.
They had no explanation as to how this could happen.
The value of the item after damage was a fraction of it's original value.
Their attitude towards this incident was offhand and disinterested.
They offered me the sale minus fees. Customer service is key when things go wrong. A belligerent passive aggressive attitude is not helpful.
Will never use again.

Buyers Beware.
Won a small item at auction for £30 but with auction charges and delivery came to over £96.
Charged nearly £60 delivery.
Ripp off, less than 100 miles plus no insurance.
If I'd of sent it would of been less than £10.
The old saying once bitten twice shy.

Dishonest auction house. I bid and won a lamp via saleroom whilst watching the auction live.

Sworders then proceeded to mark the item as passed and and offered me the lamp for £70 plus commission via email.

That’s not how auctions work, don’t be in the business of running one if you can’t operate honestly and fairly,

Lovely spot with nice teas and coffees. Everyone is friendly and the chap helping us went above and beyond gathering four men from the office to help me move the (~200KG) sideboard into the van.

Sworders failed to register our absentee bid and then dug their heels in...

We bid for a painting via an absentee (commission) bid but due to an error on Sworders part they did not register the bid in their system. So on the day the painting sold for considerably less than we had said we were willing to pay. Sworders admitted it was their mistake, apologised and offered a future commission free purchase as way of compensation. But as we seldom buy via auction, the offer was not something we could utilise.

We were extremely upset and saw no reason why Sworders should profit from this botched sale via their 40%+ combined buyers/sellers commission. After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing we suggested that the best way of resolving this incident was that Sworders could give their £350 commission to a charity of our choice - a Hospice - otherwise we said we would go to the Small Claims Court.

At that point the MD, Paul Martin became absurdly sanctimonious that we had threatened to go to court and fell back on his legal understanding that as we had suffered no actual or potential financial loss or expense, we might win any court case but would only receive nominal damages despite Sworders having admitted liability. This seemed incredibly mean-spirited of a company with the reputation of Sworders, given we were asking for their profit on the botched sale to go to a hospice.

Well we have been to court now (much delayed - Sworders did not even bother turning up to court on the day). But Paul Martin was wrong. We won not just our case, but also the full £350 compensation we had asked for originally (which will now go to the Hospice as planned).