Caddyshack
A. N. Abell Auction Company
110 Years of
110 Years of
Los Angeles History
Four generations. One family. Since 1916.
There are companies that do business in Los Angeles.
And then there are companies
that grew up with Los Angeles.
Founded in 1916, Abell has witnessed Los Angeles transform from a young Western city into one of the cultural capitals of the world.
Abell watched Los Angeles
become Los Angeles.
- 110
- Years
- 4
- Generations
- LA
- Los Angeles
- 1916
- Established
Kiev → Los Angeles
Abraham N. Abell
Founder
Abraham N. Abell was born in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1907 he arrived in the United States and ultimately made his way to California.
Los Angeles was still a young city. Hollywood had not yet become the world's movie capital. Beverly Hills was only beginning to emerge. The vast estates that would later define Southern California were still largely in the future.
Abraham purchased a furniture business and eventually transformed it into Liberty Auctions.
Read the full story
Soon after arriving he purchased a furniture business from a relative. He understood the power of the auction: public competition allowed an object to find its value through the marketplace.
In 1908, Abraham transformed the business into Liberty Auctions. In 1916, after relocating to Los Angeles' West Adams district, it became A. N. Abell Auction Company.
The foundation had been laid.
A. N. Abell Auction Company · Los Angeles, California
California's original
California's original
auction house.
In 1916, after relocating to Los Angeles' West Adams district, Abraham established A. N. Abell Auction Company, creating a permanent Los Angeles marketplace devoted to estate property.
It catered to the trust and estate communities of Southern California — the first permanent auction house in Los Angeles showing fine estate property, which is still the work today.
A marketplace for Los Angeles history.
World War I
Abell: one year old when America entered the war.
1918
Influenza pandemic.
The auction continued.
The Roaring Twenties
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
comes of age.
Peace brought extraordinary growth. Hollywood emerged. Grand residences rose across Southern California. Fine art, European furniture, silver, jewelry, rugs and decorative arts filled the homes of a rapidly expanding city.
Every estate held a story.
1929
Thirteen years after Abell's founding
The prosperity stopped. Fortunes vanished. Businesses failed. Families needed liquidity. Abell survived because the auction remained one of the most direct and transparent ways to turn property into a marketplace.
During prosperous times, people collect.
During difficult times, people sell.
Abell remained.
Second generation
Robert Abell
Robert Abell
Willard Schireson
- Robert Abell
- Willard Schireson
Abraham's son Robert became part of the second generation entrusted with carrying the family business forward. He did not carry it alone. Willard Schireson — Abraham's nephew, and Robert's first cousin — was an integral part of the company's history, and helped Abell blossom.
By their era, Los Angeles had become the center of a new cultural universe. Hollywood studios grew into empires. Pasadena, Hancock Park, Beverly Hills and Bel Air filled with remarkable collections — and the objects inside those homes increasingly found their way to Abell.
1941
Twenty-five years of Abell
Twenty-five years after Abell's founding, America entered World War II. Southern California transformed into a center of wartime industry.
Another war.
Another generation.
The auction continued.
Hollywood came to Abell.
- Cecil B. DeMille
- Gene Autry
- Gene Kelly
- Vincent Price
- Loretta Young
- Barbara Stanwyck
Everyone had a paddle.
And everyone had a chance.
More than objects.
Memory.
Abraham Lincoln
1860 presidential campaign flag
How Green Was My Valley
Academy Award for Best Picture
Shirley Temple
Sapphire ring
Third generation
Barry Abell
The company entered its third generation under Abraham's grandson Barry Abell.
The auction world had changed dramatically. Victorian collecting gave way to modern design. California painting grew in stature. Postwar and contemporary art became increasingly important. Jewelry became global. Technology began transforming the marketplace.
- Know what you are selling.
- Present it properly.
- Expose it to competition.
- Let the market decide.
1984
An era ends
Abraham N. Abell lived long enough to see the business he founded as a young immigrant become a Los Angeles institution. Following his death in 1984, the family continued.
The name remained.
1992
Los Angeles erupted.
During the civil unrest following the Rodney King verdict, Abell's historic West Adams building was destroyed by fire.
The building contained generations of company records and archives.
They burned with it.
Three weeks later.
The auction continued.
You can burn down
an auction house.
You cannot burn down
a tradition.
Abell was never a building.
- Knowledge
- Relationships
- Reputation
- Employees
- Clients
- Family
The company relocated to its Commerce property and resumed operations.
From one room in Los Angeles
to collectors around the world.
- Telephone bidding expanded the room.
- Absentee bidding expanded it further.
- The internet removed the walls.
- The marketplace became global.
100
Years
54 auctions.
Abell's centennial year
1918
Influenza pandemic
2020
COVID-19
102 years apart.
Abell survived both.
Fourth generation
Preserving what matters.
- Patrick Abell
- Sean Abell
- Todd Schireson
The next century has already begun.
- 1916
- 1929
- 1941
- 1984
- 1992
- 2000
- 2016
- 2020
- 2026
110 years.
- Two world wars
- Two global pandemics
- The Great Depression
- Civil unrest
- Fire
- Recessions
- A technological revolution
Still here.
Trust is the real inheritance.
An estate is rarely simply an inventory. A painting may have hung above someone's fireplace for fifty years. A ring may have been worn through an entire marriage. A chair may have belonged to someone's grandmother. A trustee may be responsible for an entire lifetime of property.
For generations, families and fiduciaries have asked Abell to identify, research, present and sell those objects responsibly.
Trust cannot be manufactured
by marketing.
It is accumulated.
- Estate by estate.
- Auction by auction.
- Generation by generation.
For 110 years.
Trust and Estates →
Behind every door,
something unknown.
- A painting ignored for decades.
- A jewel inside a drawer.
- Silver behind cabinet doors.
- A forgotten automobile.
- A work whose significance was never fully understood.
What is in the next lot?
A Los Angeles
institution.
Abell's history belongs to the Abell family. After 110 years, part of it belongs to Los Angeles. It belongs to generations of collectors, decorators, dealers, families, trustees, auctioneers, employees and bidders who have passed through its doors.
Abell has never simply observed Los Angeles history.
Abell has participated in it.
1916 — 2026
110 years.
- Four generations.
- Countless estates.
- Countless stories.
- One enduring name.
Abell
Los Angeles, California
Established 1916
The first 110 years
were only the beginning.
Private view
Discover what's next.
Receive early access to upcoming auctions, private previews, estate stories and exceptional property.