--- title: The Savoy Is Auctioning Sinatra's Cocktail Cabinet and Churchill's Desk, and the Public Can Bid for the First Time description: The Savoy is auctioning furniture from its famous suites this July, from Sinatra's cabinet to Churchill's desk, and the public can bid for the first time. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-06-22T09:45:14.311Z updated: 2026-06-22T09:45:14.488Z canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/savoy-hotel-auction image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/savoy-hotel-sale.webp categories: Culture & Society, Home & Living content_type: Feature region: United Kingdom publication: Rich Woman Magazine schema_type: Article about: - type: Organization name: Pro Auction Limited description: Pro Auction Limited is a Somerset auction house based near Bath, founded by Simon Rose and Mark Flynn more than twenty years ago. The firm handles plant, machinery and asset sales and valuations, and in recent years has run hospitality and leisure asset auctions, including The Savoy hotel’s series of furniture sales since 2024. url: https://proauction.com/ foundingDate: 2004-03-01T00:00:00.000Z industry: Auctioneers and valuers --- In the rooms the Savoy named after Frank Sinatra, there is a black cocktail cabinet with a hidden compartment built to hold a decanter and glasses. In a few weeks it will go under the hammer, and with it the writing tables, the gilded mirrors and the silk-dressed beds from some of the most famous suites in London. For three days this July, the Savoy is selling the furniture from its celebrated rooms, and for the first time it is [opening the bidding to the public](https://richwoman.co/article/200m-lineup-for-live-auction-in-london-attract-luxury-driven-prime-location-property-buyers). ## The Stories Behind the Savoy The Savoy opened in 1889, paid for by Richard D'Oyly Carte with the fortune he had made staging Gilbert and Sullivan. It was the first hotel in Britain lit by electric light, the first with electric lifts, and one of the first where the rooms had a bathroom with hot water on tap. César Ritz ran the front of house. Auguste Escoffier ran the kitchen, and it was there, for the Australian soprano Nellie Melba, that he invented the peach Melba. Claude Monet stayed three times at the turn of the century and painted the Thames from the hotel. Enrico Caruso and George Gershwin were among the guests. In the forecourt, to this day, cars are made to drive on the right, the one address in Britain where they do. The hotel even keeps a cat for the superstitious. In 1898 a diamond magnate named Woolf Joel hosted a dinner that fell one guest short, leaving thirteen at the table, and a fellow diner warned that the first to rise would be the first to die. Joel stood up first and was shot dead in Johannesburg a few weeks later. Ever since, whenever a party of thirteen books in, the Savoy lays a fourteenth place for Kaspar, a three-foot black cat carved in wood by the designer Basil Ionides. He is given a chair, a napkin tied at his neck, and a full setting for every course. Winston Churchill was so taken with him that he insisted Kaspar join his own dinners, whatever the number sitting down. ![A guest room at The Savoy hotel in London](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/savoy-guestroom.webp) ## Why the Furniture Is Being Sold The furniture is coming out because the hotel is being made over. Since 2024 the Savoy has been refurbishing its rooms and suites one at a time, a £45 million job that runs until 2027. The pieces that come out are not going into storage. They are being sold through Pro Auction, a Somerset auction house that has handled the hotel's earlier sales. Those rounds were for the trade, for hoteliers and designers buying by the vanload. The sale in July is the last of them, and the only one the public has been allowed to join. Simon Rose, the auction director at Pro Auction, says letting everyone into the room was the point. > "The Savoy doesn't just belong to the hospitality trade; it belongs to the people who have lived out their milestones within its walls, and now, those milestones get to live on within theirs." > — Simon Rose, Pro Auction ## Nine Suites, and How the Savoy Proves a Piece Is Real The lots likely to draw the keenest bidding come from the Personality Suites, the rooms the Savoy dresses in the spirit of the stars who favoured them. There are nine in all, named for the likes of Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Maria Callas and Katharine Hepburn, as well as Sinatra and Churchill. Showing that a particular desk or mirror truly stood in one of them is part of the work, and Simon says the important lots are checked against the hotel's old floor plans and design records before they are listed. The writing desks from the Churchill suite, several made by the Italian house Francesco Molon to fit the room, still carry the Savoy's brass tags under the central drawer, stamped with the code that ties each one back to where it sat. The Sinatra cabinets are known by those hidden compartments. The mirrors from the rooms the hotel links to Marilyn Monroe are known by their rose-tinted glass, cut to soften a reflection. ![An Art Deco room at The Savoy hotel in London](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/savoy-artdeco-room.webp) *A luxury bedroom suite featured in the upcoming public auction, highlighting the premium hospitality-grade bedding, sleek Art Deco-influenced cabinetry, architectural lighting, and bespoke textile assets available. — Photo: The Savoy* ## What You Could Take Home The famous names are a small part of a very long catalogue. The Francesco Molon collection alone runs to mahogany cabinets, Regency writing tables and side tables inlaid by hand. There are beds dressed in silk, sculptural wall lights, Murano glass, tall bevelled mirrors, and the framed prints and sculptures that once hung along the corridors. For anyone doing up a home, it is a chance to bring a piece of the Savoy into an ordinary room. For a small hotel, it is five-star furniture without the year-long wait to have it built. By the time the last lot sells, Pro Auction says it will have found new homes for more than 18,000 pieces of the Savoy since 2024. ## How to Bid at the Savoy Auction The sale runs from 21 to 23 July 2026, starting at 10 each morning, inside the hotel on the Strand. Registration is free and open to anyone. [The bidding happens in the room and online](https://richwoman.co/article/how-to-buy-a-property-at-auction-without-losing-your-nerve-or-your-deposit) at the same time, through the-saleroom.com, bidspotter.co.uk and i-bidder.com. Seats on the floor are limited and have to be booked ahead. Anyone who would rather see the pieces first can view them by appointment on 20 July, and again on the morning of the first day before the gavel falls. ### Event: The Savoy Hotel Furniture Auction 21 July 2026 – 23 July 2026 Hybrid Venue: The Savoy, London, United Kingdom Organized by: Pro Auction Limited The final phase of Pro Auction’s sale of furniture, lighting, mirrors and art from The Savoy hotel, with more than 2,000 lots. Bidding is live in the room and online. [Event website](https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/pro-auction/catalogue-id-pr10478) ## FAQ **Q: When and where is the Savoy hotel auction?** The Savoy auction runs from 10am daily on 21, 22 and 23 July 2026, held at the hotel on the Strand, London WC2R 0EZ. **Q: Can the public bid at the Savoy auction?** Yes. Registration is free and open to everyone, online or in person. Seats in the room are limited and must be booked in advance. **Q: What is being sold at the Savoy?** Furniture and fittings from the hotel's refurbished rooms and suites, including a collection by Francesco Molon, along with lighting, Murano glass, mirrors, silk-dressed beds and artwork. **Q: How can I bid online?** Online bidding is hosted on the-saleroom.com, bidspotter.co.uk and i-bidder.com, which carry the catalogue and run live during the three-day sale. **About Pro Auction Limited** Pro Auction Limited is a Somerset auction house based near Bath, founded by Simon Rose and Mark Flynn more than twenty years ago. The firm handles plant, machinery and asset sales and valuations, and in recent years has run hospitality and leisure asset auctions, including The Savoy hotel’s series of furniture sales since 2024. [Website](https://proauction.com/)