About Patina
We know what things are worth
An auction house built on the belief that every object has a history worth telling.
Our story
We began in a single room on Church Street, cataloguing the contents of Charleston houses for families who needed someone to tell them what mattered and what did not. There was no saleroom, no staff, only a good eye and a habit of doing the work properly.
Twenty five years on, that work has not changed, though the scale has. We handle full estate liquidations, single owner collections, and individual consignments across the Southeast, and our sales now draw bidders from well beyond it. The room on Church Street has become a gallery and saleroom, but the way we treat what passes through it is exactly the same.
What has held constant is the belief the house was built on. Every object carries a history, and the task of an auction house is to understand that history, describe it honestly, and place the object in the right hands. We have never seen it as any more complicated, or any simpler, than that.
Our approach
How we work
The team
The people behind every valuation
Eleanor Whitfield
Founder and Principal Auctioneer - Estate valuation
Marcus Vale
Managing Director — Fine art and antiquities
Rosalind Ainsworth
Head of Fine Art — Paintings and works on paper
Julian Thorne
Senior Specialist — Antique furniture and decorative arts
Camille Boucher
Head of Jewelry and Timepieces — Estate jewelry
Adaeze Nwosu
Director of Estate Services — Liquidation and logistics
