In late December Bonhams announced that Matthew Haley, who for the past four years has worked as a specialist in New York, has been appointed effective mid-February to the important post of Head of Books, Maps and Manuscripts for the United Kingdom and Europe. He will be based in London. This is an appointment from within and evidence, if any is needed, that Bonhams staffing is one of its strengths.
After graduating Oxford with an MA in 2003 he joined the university’s Taylor Institution Library where he curated several exhibitions of rare books and manuscripts. In 2004 he joined Bonhams in London as a specialist and in 2008 assumed the same role with them in New York in the area of fine books, manuscripts and historical documents. In that capacity he established Bonhams annual Space History Sale, a now important event in this emerging field.
While working in New York he has also been an active public speaker, giving talks at the Boston Athenaeum, the Forward Arts Foundation of Atlanta and the Long Island Book Collectors group.
In moving on to London he had this to say, “In the last four years I learned that in America book collecting and business practices in general are quite different from in the UK. I hope to bring to Europe some of the optimism and entrepreneurship that I picked up from our clients on this side of the Atlantic.”
