Phillips takes its Editions Evening Sale at five on Thursday 17 September 2026, with Bridget Riley, Julie Mehretu and Yoshitomo Nara among the lots. Viewing from 11 September.
Harry Phillips founded the auction house in Westminster in 1796, having been Christie’s head clerk, and he sold the collections of Beau Brummell and Marie Antoinette within his first decade. The house passed to Bernard Arnault in 1999, to Simon de Pury in 2002 and to the Mercury group in 2008, each owner narrowing it further onto twentieth and twenty-first century material. It marks its 230th anniversary in 2026, which makes it the oldest of the three London salerooms that sell only modern and contemporary work.
Editions is the department where that focus is most useful to a new buyer. Prints and multiples are made in numbered runs by the same artists whose unique work sits several decimal places away, so the sale is a way into a market at a tenth of its headline price. Bridget Riley’s Fête carries an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000, Julie Mehretu’s Corner of Lake and Minnehaha (Smoke) £12,000 to £18,000, and Yoshitomo Nara’s Country Home £20,000 to £30,000.
The sale is called at five on Thursday 17 September 2026 at 30 Berkeley Square, with viewing from Friday 11 September. Phillips runs its Modernism sale in the same building three hours earlier that afternoon, so the two are one visit rather than two. An evening sale of editions is the shortest distance between a first purchase and a name a collector already knows.