23rd Jul, 2025 10:00
Printed Books, Maps & Decorative Prints, Autographs & Ephemera, Postcards & Records
Ames (Aldrich Hazen, b. 1941), An archive of 170+ Autograph Letters Signed
Sold for £3,000
Ames (Aldrich Hazen, b. 1941), American former CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia in 1994. An archive of 170+ Autograph Letters Signed, mostly ‘Rick’ and often accompanied by a smiley-face, written from Allenwood Penitentiary, Lewisburg, 1994-2005, the majority written on yellow, lined legal paper, and all addressed to his sister Nancy Ames Everly, presenting a full and revealing accounting of Ames’s imprisonment beginning with solitary confinement, Ames rails against the CIA and other government agencies, attempts to maintain contact with his family, including his wife and son, plans legal strategies with his attorney while working several legal appeals, reports on a serious prison guard threat, and offers a humorous accounting of how the IRS is claiming back due taxes on the millions of dollars he received from the Soviets, in addition, Ames reveals a lengthy and very cultivated accounting of the books and magazines he is reading; arranges TV interviews with ABC, CNN and other meetings with journalists; and discusses bureaucratic setbacks, a total of over 320 pages, 4to, with postmarked envelopes
(Quantity: approx. 170+)
Provenance: Malcolm Blunt Archives.
Aldrich Hazen Ames is an American former CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia in 1994. He is serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. Ames was known to have compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other officer until Robert Hanssen, who was arrested seven years later in 2001.
Selected excerpts:
‘The [Central Intelligence] Agency just goes berserk – there is no legal or bureaucratic obstacle inside the Agency to check the insane impulses of the top guys’
19 October 1994. About his wife (who was had just been sentenced to serve 63 months in prison) and son. ‘What you tell me of Rosario comes as no surprise, and I have no right or inclination to make it otherwise. It is a necessary way to preserve and fortify herself against what has happened and what is to come. What I do so very much hope for is that the resolve and strength she will need to survive will also be of a mind which will overcome her trials. That she be able to leave them behind her somehow in a way which will enable her – and Paul – to pick up life again and heal. Only then will I truly hope for whatever reconciliation is possible…’
21 October 1994. Regarding possible interviews by Diane Sawyer and Sally Quinn as well as a possible movie project directed by Oliver Stone: ‘Apart from my deep contempt for Stone’s ideas and methods, I would not be interested, I think, in ever assisting him. Stone’s bizarre concepts of reality and his need to present his own point of view would probably be harmful…’
6 November 1994. ‘Friday I received a copy of the Senate committee report [The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on Ames on November 1st], which makes public a great many more details than before. It also tended to be a bit depressing reading as it not only rehashed past problems or indiscretions, but described and expressed them in truly demonizing ways, mainly reflecting the IG [Inspector General’s] report. But of course it reflects a kind of triple-biased point of view: first, individuals (former colleagues) have natural difficulty focusing on good things and would hesitate to express them for the IG’s review; second, the Agency made its tough decision to try to explain why such an incompetent clown existed and was given one assignment after another, rather than reflect the more complex realities; and third, the Senate Committee found it convenient simply to flagellate the Agency for ever tolerating me. The CIA/IG released earlier a public version of its report and, together with the Senate report, ‘close reading’ of both does reveal the gaps, rough… edges and artificial construction of my portrait.’
2 December 1994. Regarding the interception of mail to his attorney Plato Cacheris (recently retained by Edward Snowden). ‘All this makes the absurd incident with Mr. X (you remember, he called you & identified himself as CIA, and then you asked me about him in your letter to me? And the Hulk [Mark J. Hulkower, 1957-2011, prosecutor in Ames’ trial] then wrote a letter to BoP [Bureau of Prisons] claiming I broke the law in my reply!) So no doubt the CIA was busy playing a game on you, too, monitoring our exchange to see what you would do….Really, the BoP and FBI usually know what they’re doing in matters like this. The Agency just goes berserk – there is no legal or bureaucratic obstacle inside the Agency to check the insane impulses of the top guys. It’s happened many times before. No one really knows whether they’re getting a legal or illegal order.’
4 June 1995. ‘The guards from the SHU [Special Housing Unit] were late again, and I had to wait locked up for some 15 minutes. No big deal, but an uncomfortable incident followed. When I came out, ready to go, the two changing room guys were standing there with two C.O.’s from the SHU. There was a moment of silence, they all smiled, I smiled and raised my eyebrows. No one spoke. I stood there with my eyebrows raised a bit and seconds of silence ticked away, perhaps ten of them—a lot under those circumstances—and their smiles became grins. My smile stopped. Then the big bearded joker broke the silence by saying someone should call on the radio to clear the corridor. One of them did. Short silence again. The joker launched into a description of how it [had] taken five C.O.’s to subdue Ames once, a mock report to his three colleagues. Another suggested they needed some practice. Then the mood broke and they began talking of a past incident of subduing some legendary fellow they had known. Strange & unpleasant, though I never felt that they were going to do anything. But it was the first such case of that sort of spontaneous, unplanned and careless attempt at bullying or humiliation I had experienced.’
12 November 1995. ‘My refusal to talk to the FBI and CIA is a response to the government’s failure to perform as called for in my plea agreement, involving a whole range of issues affecting my own situation here. But the FBI has so far appeared unimplicated in these abuses, and to a limited extend has presented itself as uninvolved. This is useful to me, though any attempt to exploit or further any FBI-CIA institutional/turf differences would surely provoke them to close ranks. The FBI may have hoped that a good guy/bad guy routine would be useful to it, but surely recognizes as I do that there is very little real basis for such ploys. What it comes down to in the end is faithful performance by each party to the plea agreement -- without mutual satisfaction on that, no games or tactics will help either.’
31 March 1996. ‘Wise’s article is a good one in general and he usefully points out the huge expansion of the military espionage efforts. As the Pentagon gets deeper and deeper into it, there’s every likelihood of self-correcting disaster ahead. If the Agency has managed some pratfalls, wait till this gong show gets going!’
17 February 1997. Contains a ‘circular’ that he asked his sister to distribute ‘to stimulate letters, faxes, emails, to Congressmen and Senators and to local newspapers.’ The circular reads, in part: ‘Well, I’m back in the hole again. I was suddenly ‘arrested’ in the compound on Monday afternoon Feb. 10th, handcuffed, strip searched and put into a solitary cell back in Allenwood’s Special Housing Unit where I’d spent the 20 months between Aug. 94 and April 96. They had told me that some of the staff here feared for my safety in genl population due to the story coming out in U.S. New & World Report… which they thought might rouse some of the more excitable prisoners here to kill me for my crimes or to extort from me the $2 million I’m said to have access to… The CIA and BoP officials in Washington who kept me segregated her for 20 months couldn’t resist the opportunity local initiative gave them. They have now co-opted the process and have ordered Allenwood staff to keep me locked up in involuntary protective custody… this is also the time if you’re so inclined to write to your Senator and Congressman to ask them what’s happening and why the CIA should be reading your mail, etc.’
18 December 1997. ‘My fabulous cheese should arrive next week and those degrading Xmas bags of candy as well. The food service boss has taken to wearing a Santa Claus hat during meals -- a gesture widely seen as an insult aggravated by the daily level of incompetence he puts on display. The food service staff -- and the prisoners working in the kitchen, too -- ought to wear brown bags over their heads instead.’
15 March 1998. ‘Rumor, just prior to the lockdown about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, had it that a fellow in our unit was badly stabbed in the yard or in the gym. There was quite a roundup the next day and a half with half a dozen people being taken to the SHU [Special Housing Unit] from the unit -- no violence or resistance apparent, but the unit was occupied at those times by the dozen-member goon squad or by the SORT team. On Friday we got, of all things, a memo from the warden informing us that we’d be locked down for the duration of the investigation but that the population’s behavior would be a factor in ending it as well. It would be a good guess that the victim died and that some sort of gang -- or a group -- related quarrel was behind it.’
27 January 1999. ‘Here are various documents I’ve been meaning to send. I’m working on my Tax Court Reply Brief and have most of a first draft done. I need to do some more -- it’s an endless topic -- on the double jeopardy issue. Constructive receipt is not a problem -- I’ll be castigating the IRS for losing its agreement on a counterfactual hypothesis/speculation. Their agreement rests on the imaginary supposition -- contradicted by the facts -- that the Soviets were unwilling to let me have access to the funds during 1985-1988 and that if they were unwilling, I had no enforceable claim to them, etc., etc.’
16 November [1999]. ‘Along the same line I noted an awful piece of Gore overkill in last Thurs. IH Trib, in which he artfully managed to drop the name of four (the number 4, not 3) very obscure prime ministers: Tunisia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, and another, forgettable, place. But, then, none of these guys have any class.’
2 February [2000]. ‘P.S. Have received two amazingly warm and complimentary letters (asking for money) from Senator Lott. How nicely illustrative of our political process.’
3 April 2000. ‘Could you check the George Washington University Law School’s website to see what they do re: pro bono work on prisoner appeals? Specifically, I was struck by a story in the National Law Journal about a case being handled by one of the faculty there, Professor Jonathan R. Turley (He’s one of the lawyers for a military defendant in an espionage case who can’t talk to his lawyers without censorship.)’ Ames, concerned that his mail is being read, concludes, ‘This is a little more than I’d like the gov’t to know at this point, but you get my drift…’
16 March [2001]. A list of periodicals to which he subscribes: Granta, The New York Review of Books, NLJ [National Law Journal], The Nation, and Lingua Franca. ‘It seems that [Martha] Raddatz still wants to do an interview, despite my conditions. I was told yesterday that the warden is still considering her request. It’ll be interesting if he (ha!) decides to deny it -- It’ll be a first and an interesting contrast to his approval of a Knight Ridder reporter’s request for interviews with both Walker and me. I declined the honor -- don’t know what Walker did. It would sound a lot like content discrimination if the Agency [CIA] refuses it.’
[8 August 2001] Giving his opinion of various websites including the CIA’s website: ‘CIA -- looks pretty amateurish especially compared to State and White House… no DO live despite all the self-publicity. Home page for kids? (Sounds almost sinister.)’
15 August 2001. ‘Here is some material on free legal information sites on the net, together with a list of cases otherwise can’t seem to find or get hold of. Can you take a look? …Don’t spend too much time, though -- you’re not my legal research assistant. Also, please note for future use the following text: Did congress put a statute of limitations on the writ of habeus corpus in 1996 when it imposed one on First [?] 2255 claims? Notorious convicted spy Aldrich Ames doesn’t think so, and needs pro bono representation to get his claim of coerced and uninformed guilty pleas thrown out as untimely in the Fourth District, heard in the Middle District of PA.’
24 February 2002. A letter from the IRS demanding Ames pay $1,070,920.48, back taxes on the money he received for spying for Russia, along with a copy of his response to the IRS and a note reading: ‘It is an unfortunate truth that I cannot pay what I owe, nor any noticeable part of it. Unemployed, indigent and serving a life sentence in federal prison, I have no prospect of every being able to do so …’
Autograph copy of a letter to the editor of Science via email 3 August 2002. (‘Aldrich H. Ames’). ‘The guest editorial by Elizabeth Parker (The Intelligence Blame Game) 19th July 2002 must raise eyebrows over her views of the effects of the Vietnam War and Watergate on the national security establishments ability to deal with terrorist threats… but her main point, that academic distrust of that establishment and a reluctance to assist it is a desperate national problem, is even less wisely taken, supported only by an anecdote and rather sharp rhetoric. Our national security managers are generous funders of a dizzying range of research and technology they think useful for combatting terrorism, and there has seen no lack of talented and dedicated scholars to use that largess… she might have noted that it is our scholars who carry on the good work, and our national security managers (and the Congress) who don’t seem very interested.’
28 February 2003. ‘Now for a really important chore. You know I’m on the U of C [University of Chicago] alumni list and their big 40th anniversary is coming up. In honor of that I want to get registered on the two alum websites…’ [He lists his activities at University of Chicago] ‘I filled out and sent in a reunion questionnaire in early January, and just got a nice letter from one of the organizers… who offered to send me a DVD production he plans to make of the reunion.’
9 July 2003. ‘Looked again at the social security info you sent and must check some things here. Doesn’t appear feasible, though. My record sure does look patchy.’
10 October 2005. About his being transferred to another prison. ‘Organizer for this transfer is not quite so difficult or messy as I had feared -- I do have less stuff than I thought. With luck and a decent box for mailing, another load of books and some papers, will shortly be on its way to you. Wherever I end up, I suppose my mail will take just as long, if not longer. And, we don’t travel with anything, not even an address book. So here’s the plan: You can check with BoP locater… to see where I’ve landed.’
You can make a purchase at Dominic Winter Auctioneers by using any of the following methods:
In person: Being present at the auction provides the convenience of being able to remove the lots that you have purchased when the sale ends, provided you choose to pay by credit or debit card, guaranteed cheque or cash.
Online bidding: You can bid live online at our auctions via our own website (dominicwinter.co.uk) after completing the registration process or alternatively you can live bid on the-saleroom.com or invaluable.com
Please note successful bids made via live bidding cannot be invoiced or paid for until the day after an auction. A live bidding fee of 3% + VAT (Dominic Winter website or Invaluable.com) or 4.95% + VAT (the-saleroom) will be added to your invoice.
Commission bid: Also called an 'Absentee bid'. A member of our staff will bid on your behalf and attempt to purchase the lot as cheaply as is permitted by other bids or reserves. Commission bids can be posted, faxed or emailed to us (please remember to provide your full name and address), or you can enter a bid on our website after completing the registration process.
Telephone bid: You can contact our office to arrange a telephone bid. A member of our staff will telephone you a few minutes before bidding commences on your specified lot and will bid on your behalf, according to your instructions. This service is only available on lots with a minimum pre-sale estimated value of £300.
Dominic Winter (Auctioneers) Ltd
Conditions Of Sale And Business
Terms and Conditions of Sale
1. (a) Dominic Winter (Auctioneers) Ltd ("the Auctioneer") sells as agents for the seller (except where otherwise stated) and as such is not responsible for any default by buyer or seller.
(b) The Seller warrants to the Auctioneer and to the buyer that he is the true owner or is properly authorised to sell the property by the true owner and is able to transfer good and marketable title to the property free from any third party claims.
2. (a) The highest bidder to be the buyer. If during the auction the Auctioneer considers that a dispute has arisen he has absolute authority to settle it or to re-offer the lot. The auctioneer may at his sole discretion determine the advance of bidding or refuse a bid, divide any lot, combine any two or more lots or withdraw any lot without prior notice.
(b) Where goods are bought at auction by a buyer who has entered into an agreement with another or others that the other or others (or some of them) shall abstain from bidding for the goods and the buyer or other party or one of the other parties is a dealer as defined in the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Act 1927 and 1969 the buyer warrants that the goods are bought bona fide on a joint account.
3. The buyer shall pay the price at which a lot is knocked down by the Auctioneer to the buyer ("the hammer price") together with a premium of 22% except those lots asterisked (*) in the title, in which case the buyer's premium is 26.4% inclusive of VAT. By making any bid the buyer acknowledges that his/her attention has been drawn to the fact that on the sale of any lot the Auctioneer will receive from the seller commission at its usual rates in addition to the said premium and assents to the Auctioneer receiving the said Commission.
4. (a) The buyer shall forthwith upon the purchase give his name and permanent address together with proof of identity and pay the Auctioneer immediately after the conclusion of the auction the total sum due.
(b) The buyer may be required to pay down during the course of the sale the whole or any part of the total sum due, and if he fails to do so after such request the lot or lots may at the Auctioneer's absolute discretion be put up again and resold immediately.
(c) The buyer shall at his own expense take away any lot or lots purchased no later than five working days after the auction day.
(d) The Auctioneer may at his discretion agree credit terms with a buyer and extend the time limits for collection in special cases but otherwise payment shall be deemed to have been made only after the Auctioneer has received cash or funds by bank transfer or a sterling banker's draft or the buyer's cheque or debit/credit card payment has been cleared.
(e) All sums due to the Auctioneer shall be paid as shown and he reserves the right to charge interest which shall accrue at the rate of 4% over such base lending rate of National Westminster Bank Plc as shall be in force at the date that interest becomes due, such sum to be calculated per annum from day to day on all amounts due but unpaid. This right shall be exercisable without prejudice to any other right of the Auctioneer.
5. (a) If the buyer fails to pay for or take away any lots pursuant to clause 4 or breaches any other condition of that clause the Auctioneer as agent for the seller shall be entitled after consultation with the seller to exercise one or other of the following rights:
(i) Rescind the sale of that or any other lots sold to the buyer who defaults and re-sell the lot or lots whereupon the defaulting buyer shall pay to the Auctioneer any shortfall between the proceeds of that sale after deduction of costs or re-sale and the total sum due. Any surplus shall belong to the seller.
(ii) Proceed for damages for breach of contract.
(b) Without prejudice to the Auctioneer's rights hereunder if any lot or lots are not collected within five days or such longer period as the Auctioneer may have agreed otherwise, the Auctioneer may charge the buyer a storage charge up to £1.00 per lot per day.
6. (a) The seller shall be entitled to place a reserve on any lot and the Auctioneer shall have the right to bid on behalf of the seller for any lot on which a reserve has been placed. A seller may not bid on any lot on which he has placed a reserve.
(b) Where any lot fails to sell, the Auctioneer shall notify the seller accordingly. The seller shall make arrangements either to re-offer the lot for sale or to collect the lot and may be asked to pay a commission not exceeding 50% of the selling commission and any special expenses incurred in cataloguing the lot.
(c) If such arrangements are not made within seven days of the notification the Auctioneer is empowered to sell the lot without reserve by auction or by private treaty and to receive from the seller the normal selling commission and special expenses.
7. Any representation or statement by the Auctioneer in any catalogue, brochure or advertisement of forthcoming sales as to authorship, attribution, genuineness, origin, date, age, provenance, condition or estimated selling price is a statement of opinion only. Every person interested should exercise and rely on his own judgement as to such matters and neither the Auctioneer nor his servants or agents are responsible for the correctness of such opinions. No warranty whatsoever is given by the Auctioneer or the seller in respect of any lot and any express or implied warranties are hereby excluded.
8. (a) Notwithstanding any other terms of these conditions, if within fourteen days of the sale the Auctioneer has received from the buyer of any lot notice in writing that in his/her view the lot is a deliberate forgery and within fourteen days after such notification the buyer returns the same to the Auctioneer in the same condition as at the time of the sale and satisfies the Auctioneer that considered in the light of the entry in the catalogue the lot is a deliberate forgery then the sale of the lot will be rescinded and the purchase price of the same refunded. "A deliberate forgery" means a lot made with intention to deceive.
(b) A buyer's claim under this condition shall be limited to any amount paid to the Auctioneer for the lot and for the purpose of this condition the buyer shall be the person to whom the original invoice was made out by the Auctioneer.
9. Lots may be removed during the sale after full settlement in accordance with 4.d. hereof.
10. All goods delivered to the Auctioneer's premises will be deemed to be delivered for sale by auction unless otherwise stated in writing and will be catalogued and sold at the Auctioneer's discretion and accepted by the Auctioneer subject to all these conditions. In the case of miscellaneous books, maps and other items, the Auctioneer reserves the right to extract and dispose of items that, in the opinion of the Auctioneer at his absolute discretion, have no saleable value and, therefore, might detract from the saleability of the rest of the lot and the Auctioneer shall incur no liability to the seller in respect of the items disposed of. By delivering the goods to the auctioneer for inclusion in his auction sales each seller acknowledges that he/she accepts and agrees to all the conditions.
11. (a) Unless otherwise instructed in writing, all goods on the Auctioneer's premises and in his custody will be held insured against the risk of fire, burglary, water damage and accidental breakage or damage. The value of the goods so covered will be the hammer price, or in the case of unsold lots the lower estimate, or in the case of loss or damage prior to the sale that which the specialist staff of the Auctioneer shall in their absolute discretion estimate to be the auction value of such goods.
(b) The Auctioneer shall not be responsible for damage to or the loss, theft, or destruction of any goods not so insured because of the seller's written instructions whether caused by negligence or otherwise.
(c) Any liability of the Auctioneer for any claim arising from loss or damage of any kind in respect of goods whether caused by negligence or otherwise including any claims for compensation will be limited to the amount of insurance cover effected in accordance with the provisions of clause 11.a. above.
12. The Auctioneer shall remit the proceeds of the sale to the seller thirty days after the date of the auction provided that the Auctioneer has received the total sum due from the buyer. In all other cases the Auctioneer will remit the proceeds of the sale to the seller within seven days of the receipt by the Auctioneer of the total sum due. The Auctioneer will not be deemed to have received the total sum due until after any funds received from the buyer have cleared. In the event of the Auctioneer exercising his right to rescind the sale his obligation to the seller hereunder lapses.
13. In the case of the seller withdrawing instructions to the Auctioneer to sell any lot or lots, the Auctioneer may charge the seller a fee of 12.5% of the Auctioneer's middle estimate of the auction price of the lot withdrawn together with Value Added Tax thereon and any expenses incurred in respect of the lot or lots.
14. If, on collation, any named items in the catalogue prove defective, in text or illustration, the buyer may reject the lot provided he/she returns it within fourteen days stating the defect in writing. This however will not apply in the case of unnamed items, periodicals, autograph letters, manuscripts, music, maps, atlases, prints or drawings, nor in respect of damage to bindings, stains, foxing, marginal wormholes or other defects not affecting the completeness of the text, nor in respect of lack of list of plates, inserted advertisements, cancels or subsequently published volumes, supplements, appendices or plates or error in the enumerating of the plates, nor in respect of defects mentioned in the catalogue or announced at the time of sale.
15. The Auctioneer accepts no responsibility in connection with the commissioning of his staff to bid for any lots. Reserves, and commission bids given by telephone are accepted only at the sender's risk and must be confirmed in writing before the date of the sale. Lots will always be bought as cheaply as is allowed by other bids and such reserves as are on our books.
16. Buyers are advised that a storage charge of £1.00 per lot per day plus Value Added Tax at the current rate will be levied on all purchases not cleared within fourteen working days of the sale. After this period the buyer will be responsible for loss or damage.
17. Artist's Resale Rights ("Droit de Suite"). Lots marked with "AR" or another appropriate symbol and referenced as such in the catalogue are subject to the Artist's Resale Right law. The buyer agrees to pay the Auctioneer an amount equal to the resale royalty and the Auctioneer will pay such amount to the artist's collecting agent. Resale royalty applies where the Hammer Price is 1,000 Euro or more and the amount cannot be more than 12,500 Euro per lot.
The amount is calculated as follows:
Royalty For the portion of the Hammer Price (in Euro)
4.00% up to 50,000
3.00% between 50,000.01 and 200,000
1.00% between 200,000.01 and 350,000
0.50% between 350,000.01 and 500,000
0.25% in excess of 500,000
Invoices will be issued in Pounds Sterling. For the purposes of calculating the resale royalty the Pounds Sterling/Euro rate of exchange will be the European Central Bank reference rate on the day of the sale. Please refer to the DACS website www.dacs.org.uk for further details.
18. These conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law.
Buyer's Premium :
The buyer's premium is 22%, except those lots asterisked (*) in the title for which Value Added Tax (VAT) will be added to the premium, resulting in a buyer's premium of 26.4% inclusive of VAT. Eligible items include manuscripts, prints, photographs, drawings, framed maps, paintings, pens and other objects which are subject to VAT at a rate of 20% on the buyer's premium as part of the Auctioneers Margin Scheme. VAT zero-rated items such as books, unframed maps and albums are not subject to VAT on the buyer's premium.
Live Auction Charges
An additional commission of 3% plus VAT (3.6% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer price is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the Dominic Winter Auctioneers website (dominicwinter.co.uk). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.
An additional commission of 4.95% plus VAT (5.94% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer price is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the ATG Media website (the-saleroom.com). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.
An additional commission of 3% plus VAT (3.6% inclusive of VAT) on the hammer is payable if you use the live auction bidding facility on the Invaluable website (invaluable.com). This charge will be added to your invoice automatically.
Payment (UK Buyers)
Payment is preferred by direct Bank Transfer to our bank account. Our bank details will be supplied to you with your invoice.
Payment can be made in cash at the Cashier's Office, either during or after the sale. Alternatively, you can pay by cheque (Pounds Sterling only), please allow 5 working days for the cheque to clear before collection of goods.
Credit or Debit Card payments will not be accepted by telephone unless by prior arrangement with the auctioneers. Card payments can be made in person at our premises but must be accompanied by relevant ID confirming address details. We do not accept payments by American Express.
Payment (Overseas Buyers)
Payment must be made by direct Bank Transfer to our bank account. Our bank details will be supplied to you on your invoice. No card payments will be accepted unless by special prior arrangements with the auctioneers. All transfers must state the relevant invoice number. The amount we receive must be the total due after currency conversion and the deduction of any bank charges (normally £7).
In-House Packing and Shipping
For items that are straightforward* to pack & ship, we offer an in-house shipping service with DHL. For any larger or fragile items, we have provided our recommended third party shipping companies below.
*This is at the discretion of the company.
Your auction invoice will need to be settled in full before collection by a third party shipping company.
It is the responsibility of the customer to arrange and coordinate their own shipping, whether through our in-house service (where applicable) or via a third-party provider.
(Please note all shippers are third parties and not part of Dominic Winter Auctioneers)
Contacts:
Delivery of large items: furniture, pictures, works of art, antiques etc
Mailboxes Etc., Swindon
Tel: 01793 525009
E-mail: swindon@centres.mbe.uk
Website: www.mbe.co.uk
Pack and Send, Oxford
Tel: 01865 260610
E-Mail: oxford@packsend.co.uk
Website: www.packsend.co.uk
Simon Hall Freight
Tel: 01386 858555
E-mail: enquiries@simonhalllimited.com
Website: www.simonhalllimited.com
Alban Shipping
Tel: 01582 493099
E-mail: info@albanshipping.co.uk
Website: www.albanshipping.co.uk
Jentel Packing
Tel: 01268 776777
E-mail: sales@jentelpacking.co.uk
Website: www.jentelpacking.co.uk
Delivery of Works of Art
Aardvark Art Services
Tel: 01253 794673
E-mail: info@aardvarkartservices.com
Website: www.aardvarkartservices.com
The following items will need to be outsourced to a third party:
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Framed and glazed items (Packing departments discretion)
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Quantity lots
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Multi-framed job lots
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Oversized bundles of prints
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Moulded plaster frames
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Fragile items
Banned objects for packing and posting:
We do not ship the following under any circumstances:
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Firearms
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Swords
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Bladed item
UK Shipping
We partner with DHL Express for our UK delivery service. The cost for this service is added to your invoice. Purchases up to £500 are subject to a minimum charge of £30 plus VAT per parcel. Thereafter, an extra £5 plus VAT will be added for each additional £500 purchase value increment. There may be an additional charge if extra time/packing materials are required.
Once we have sent your purchase, you will receive a notification from DHL EXPRESS ON-DEMAND DELIVERY and email/SMS updates about your shipment's progress and estimated delivery date/time. You will be able to amend the time of your delivery if required.
Shipments to the Highlands and Islands may be significantly more expensive. Please contact us for a quote before bidding.
Overseas Shipping
We partner with DHL Express for overseas shipments. We are happy to provide packing and shipping quotes on request. We are able to offer pre-sale shipping quotes, however this will be an approximate price only.
Once we have sent your purchase, you will receive a notification from DHL EXPRESS ON-DEMAND DELIVERY and email/SMS updates about your shipment's progress and estimated delivery date/time. You will be able to amend the time of your delivery if required.
For items under the value of £250 we can send via Royal Mail International Signed-For Service (2kg maximum weight). Charges are variable.
PLEASE NOTE:
On arrival of the goods in your country, Import Duties & Taxes may be payable before goods are released to you. These charges vary for each country and are entirely your responsibility, we have no way of knowing what they will be. If you do not pay these charges, your goods will be returned to us.
Export Licences and CITES Permits
These documents may be required to ship some lots out of the UK. Your shipper (DHL Express or other) can advise and apply for these on your behalf. It is the buyer's responsibility to ensure that the shipment is lawfully exported out of the selling location and can be lawfully imported to the country of destination. We can assist with export licences only, if required, for a fee: please contact us for more details if you require assistance.
Sustainability
We reuse packaging and cardboard boxes where possible for all our shipments. When packing fragile items we use a 100% recyclable filler.
We proudly partner with DHL Express, utilising sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) via the GoGreen Plus service to deliver your orders. By investing in sustainable aviation fuel, we actively reduce the CO2e emissions associated with our shipments, minimising our carbon footprint. We believe it's our responsibility to do what's right for the planet, and we want to empower our customers to make a positive impact too. Together, let's embrace sustainable practices and contribute to a greener future.
SAF is currently the primary route to reducing carbon emissions in aviation, so this is the most effective way to help our customers make their orders more sustainable. Embracing SAF is not only essential for meeting sustainability goals but also paves the way towards a greener future in the air transportation industry.
For more information on DHL's GoGreen Plus option please visit:
https://group.dhl.com/en/media-relations/press-releases/2023/dhl-express-and-world-energy-agree-to-global-partnership.html
