A SMALL glass bowl made headline news last week. Measuring a mere 8in x 10in, the bowl, known as the Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup, was sold at Bonhams auction house in London for £2.6 million. It was a record auction price for a piece of ancient glass.

It has been a good year for the major international auction houses. In June the Impressionist and Modern Art auction at Sotheby’s London generated a turnover of £61 million, the highest at a British art auction since 1989. A month earlier, Sotheby’s New York auctioned Picasso’s Garçon a la Pipe for a hammer price of £51.9 million, the highest ever for a painting. Business is booming. Artprice.com reported that catalogued fine art sales in London between January 1 and May 31 were £150 million, up 13 per cent on last year. Rarely has there been a better time to work in the world of auctions.

So where should graduates interested in a job at a firm of auctioneers start? Getting into the prestigious international firms such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams is not easy — there are a limited number of openings and competition is tough — but there are some useful door-openers.

Several of the major auction houses run graduate internship programmes. At Christie’s graduate interns are employed on a fixed-term temporary contract for five months, with an additional one-month probationary period at the start. Intakes are in January and July. Duties range from general administrative tasks to assisting with the preparation of sales.

“Christie’s believes that experience is best gained through practical involvement in the activities of our departments,” says Catherine Manson, head of public relations for Christie’s Europe. “As a result, graduate interns are given the opportunity to participate in ways that are designed to enable them to gain an overview of each aspect of the department’s activities.” Applications are assessed on a number of criteria. A history of art degree or 12 months’ work experience in an art-related field is required. A foreign language, as is the case with most international auction houses, is desirable.

Another option for graduates is to increase their specialist knowledge by taking a master’s degree before applying for work. The Courtauld Institute of Art is one of the leading educational establishments for teaching history of art. It offers a nine-month master’s degree course. Students choose from specialist areas such as early Sienese painting, and contemporary British art. Andrew Penman, the deputy academic registrar, says that graduates emerge as “very finely focused specialists”.

In addition to the international auction houses, there are many specialist auction firms. Bloomsbury Auctions in London deals predominantly in books, both antiquarian and modern. Graduates usually start as junior cataloguers, preparing catalogues for the main sales. Later there may be opportunities to travel abroad to value collections and to take a turn at the rostrum.

For graduates who have had their fill of books, the auction house Spink, also in London, specialises in coins, medals and stamps. It operates an internship programme taking on a small number of second-year students to work for a minimum of eight weeks.

There are many provincial auction houses in the UK. Invaluable.com lists more than 100. Although many are small firms, growth in the antiques trade, plus a recent trend towards consolidation among firms, means there are still exciting opportunities for graduates.

Traditionally, qualifying as a chartered surveyor the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has been a good route into the provincial auction houses. The term chartered surveyor may bring to mind property valuing but students are also able to specialise in fine arts and antiques valuation. Taking an accredited course at degree level exempts students from several years’ study towards the professional qualification.

Dreweatt Neate is an example of a rising regional firm of auctioneers. Part of the Fine Art Auction Group, it also has salerooms in Bristol, Newbury and Eastbourne. At present, Dreweatt Neate takes on three graduates every two years or so. The firm looks for a number of attributes in its graduate trainees. “I would be looking for someone who has a degree in a fine arts related subject — history of art, for example,” says Dan Bray, senior auctioneer and valuer.

“Graduates must be passionate about antiques. An aptitude for dealing with clients is required, and good communication skills are essential, as is a degree of salesmanship.”

Working in an auction house can open up many different career opportunities. John Huddy worked at Christie’s after successfully applying to its graduate trainee scheme. Before that he completed a master’s in history of art at the University of St Andrews. Huddy left Christie’s to start his own gallery, the Illustration Cupboard, specialising in children’s book illustration.

Today the business, based in London, is thriving with clients across the globe. Huddy’s experience at Christie’s proved invaluable. “The auction house taught me the practicalities of working with art forms in a business environment, and understanding the different markets and their trends,” he says. “I learnt the day-to-day detail of how to do inventories, catalogues, research and valuations for auction and for insurance. I learnt how sales are constructed and departments run, and gained valuable experience in client liaison.”