In 2018, he joined Bargain Hunt as one of the five main presenters. The now 73-year-old auctioneer will also be familiar to fans of Flog It!, Antiques Road Trip and Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.
If you’ve ever wondered what steps and sacrifices one might have to make in order to reach the dizzy heights of TV fame, Ross’ new book can tell you exactly how he did it. Sold! The Autobiography of Charlie Ross is a colourful, lively and anecdotal dip into the life of “the world’s greatest auctioneer”.
In his career, Ross has held several records for selling items for the highest price. Despite the high stakes at such events, Ross is charmingly glib about the pressure: “It’s not unlike being in a play or musical: the main difference is that you don’t have to learn any words – you just make up the lines as you go along.”
He held the record for the highest price ever achieved for a car sold by auction in the US. The car, a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa Prototype, sold for over $16m (£12.5m) in 2011. The price was exceeded in 2013, and again in 2014 for a Ferrari 250 GTO sold at Carmel, California, for over $38m (£30m).
The book makes some narrative detours via his passion for cricket, sartorial mishaps caused by apparently bulky thighs and his enthusiastic embrace of musical theatre. Among the chatty diversions are some keen insights and observations: “Undertakers and auctioneers have two things in common. They understand that once the hammer has fallen there’s no going back, and they share a common interest in house clearances. The latter is very profitable.”
Ross has raised huge amounts for charity, at fundraising auctions and with his involvement with a clutch of novelty tunes. In 2017 he recorded a rock version of Sleigh Ride for BBC Children In Need with fellow BBC antiques experts Charles Hanson, Philip Serrell and James Braxton. His penchant for Gilbert & Sullivan appears to have paid dividends and the single reached number 1 on the Amazon Rock Charts.
The book is a pacy jaunt through Ross’ life story rather than an academic tome for art historians. Colleagues, fans of his TV shows and people looking for a window onto the ‘showbiz’ side of auctioneering will be amused and entertained.
