Digital auction house Paddle8 sees opportunity in the shifting buying habits of young collectors.
Last summer, Paddle8 cofounder Alexander Gilkes happened to run into designer Andy Spade at a dinner party. “I’ve long admired Andy’s eclectic taste,” says Gilkes, a former auctioneer and Old Etonian with a penchant for tweed jackets. Spade had recently sold his home in Southampton, Long Island, and the artworks and collectibles that he had acquired over the years were sitting in storage. As the evening light filtered through the windows of host Tory Burch’s uptown apartment, Gilkes suggested that Spade sell the Southampton works online through Paddle8, his startup auction house. That conversation led to a meeting at the Bowery Hotel, and by mid-January, 80 lots from the designer’s personal treasure trove were open to bidders around the world.
