LONDON.- This week Bonhams announced that Charles Martin will return to the company after some years, to work as a business getter and consultant in the South East, based at Sevenoaks.

Matthew Girling, Bonhams CEO Europe and the Middle East, commenting on the appointment, says: “We are delighted to welcome Charlie Martin back to the Bonhams fold after 25 years away. He will add significantly to our strength in the South East of England where he has spent most of his professional life and where he has unrivalled contacts.”

Charles adds: “ I am looking forward to rejoining Bonhams after all these years. The company is now the premier local player in the UK allied to an international reach covering four continents. The changes at Bonhams in the 25 years I have been away are difficult to take in all at once. The sheer scale of the operation is almost overwhelming. With offices in London, Oxford, Knowle, Bury St Edmunds, Chester or Edinburgh the company taps into the very thing that a purely local auctioneer cannot provide - specialist sales, backed up by sophisticated marketing and full-scale advertising. I’m delighted to be back.”

Charles, 48, was born in Dublin and educated at Downside School, near Bath, Somerset and then Trinity College Dublin.

His professional career started in 1979 when he joined Keane, Mahony & Smith in the Fine Art Saleroom, Molesworth Street, Dublin, whilst studying History of European Painting at Trinity College Dublin for which he was awarded the Purser Griffith Prize, 1980.

He continued his studies at The John Hall Pre-University Course based in Venice, Florence and Rome (now John Hall Venice), followed by studies at the New Academy for Art Studies, London.

In 1982 he did a three month “Studentship” at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and on his return to the UK in 1983 he joined Bonhams, Knightsbridge as a porter and junior cataloguer for silver, clocks & jewellery. He subsequently went on to spend a year as a cataloguer in the Silver Department.

In 1985 he returned to the town of his birth and joined Sotheby’s as its Dublin Representative. After two years he moved to Sotheby’s in Sussex, doing valuations before being appointed Head of their Silver Department in 1992.

Since then he has worked for other local auction houses and continued as a Sotheby’s consultant.