A fine romance, my good fellow…..

Love under the hammer.  Fellow’s Auction House.  Mayfair.  March 27^th

Spring was in the air on this warm March night we had chosen to have our Love Under the Hammer party.  Guests who sprung open the exquisitely grand doors to Fellow’s Georgian Townhouse and Mayfair viewing premises were met by the marvellous Lou and the charming Fellows team with a glass of Champagne – Berry Bros. & Rudd Crémant de Limoux – nothing but the best for our guests.

No one knew quite what was in store for the night, because that’s what we like to do – mix things up and create new ideas for you to be introduced to something different, be it a new restaurant, a new luxury brand or just a new idea.  All concepts that create a stunning backdrop enabling you to meet new people based on your similar interests and in a warm, friendly and inviting atmosphere.  Rendezvous can and should be a bit like an extended family, which is why we were so thrilled to be introduced to Fellows.

Run by charming sisters Alexandra and Nicola Whittaker, whose mother Jayne Whittaker (née Fellows) is the sixth generation of Fellows to work in the business.  Fellows is very much a family affair.

Last year, Fellows broke a house record with an Omega Speedmaster going for £90,000; they have sold in excess of 2,000 designer accessories, which included more than 30 of the highly-coveted Hermès Birkin handbags. Their star auction in November 2018 sold a large single-stone diamond ring, weighing in at over 13cts. The emerald-cut diamond sold for £310,500, shortly followed by a very impressive diamond fringe necklace sold for £177,160!

Our guests could digest the fact that they were not about to be involved in an auction – although one fine fellow did manage to involved in an auction later on…enough said on that!  We were delighted to be knowledge-imparted by Fellows specialists on all manner of things.  Despite the ground floor room serving as an enticing magnet for the ladies all keen to know how to spot a fake Hermès or a fake Chanel handbag, the room was also full to the brim with men – in an ‘always find you in the kitchen at parties’ squished room. The next handbag auction is scheduled for 29^th April.

Meanwhile, the real business was going on upstairs.  One delighted guest found a watch he fell in love with and registered himself to bid on it at the watch auction taking place on 2^nd April.  Similarly, one elegant lady brought in a family heirloom– a stunning diamond bracelet. Fellows’ specialists valued it at £5,000. You might see it or something similar in their next Fine Jewellery auction that is set to happen on 16^th May.

All the while as we were looking, learning and being wowed, there was a constant flow of champagne and delicious canapes.  The spectacularly sumptuous feast ranged from perky bloody Mary arancini, to wild mushroom tartlets to pork croquettes with apple dipping sauce.

It was wonderful to meet new guests who were introduced to us by Fellows.  Didn’t we all fit in to a T!

If you’d like to be a customer, why not bring that family heirloom that you’ve been thinking about selling; the experts will gladly tell you if they could sell it and for what starting price.  Please contact alexandra@fellows.co.uk or sign up to their email alerts. You’ll be the first to know when catalogues.

Some Lovely Feedback

Hi Barbara,
What a fun evening, fab venue, fizz and canapes. I enjoyed trying on some of those beautiful watches and chatting to the very engaging Fellows staff. See you soon!
T x

Hi Barbara
Thank you very much again for organising another super party:  it was all great fun although I cannot pretend, I mastered the intricacies of jewellery or handbags.
It was a fun night nonetheless!
B x

Dear Babs
Great event on Wednesday ‘Love Under the Hammer’ venue beautiful, canapés totally delicious, Prosecco flowed, Fellowes auctioneers very knowledgeable and quite funny…and some fabulous guests to chat to…a very different dynamic being smaller numbers.
N x

Barbara Brudenell-Bruce

Barbara is a classic entrepreneur; her career has been defined by a series of iconic start-ups within telecoms, entertainment, and fashion. She leads Investor Relations for a London-based consultancy raising capital for entrepreneurs. Alongside financial matchmaking, her passion is connecting people in person. Barbara’s innate sense of what it takes to fit people together, with a flair for hosting exquisite events, makes her a social anchor for all that know her.

More Posts

Aquavit Restaurant. Calling all the shots.

Aquavit Restaurant.

Calling all the shots.  Tuesday 16th October.

The Michelin stars were out last week it’s easy to see how this fine establishment has earned its one-star rating.

The sublime Stockholm room creates a welcome to all, fuelled by views over the dramatic restaurant downstairs.  Boldly decorated in arts and crafts prints and bespoke wood trim by London-based interior architect Martin Brudnizki (another Swedish talent!)  Brudnizki also designed the over-the-top and outrageously out there Annabel’s – the most Instagrammed club of this year.  Quite how an owner could say – yup I’ll have that interior because it’s so bonkers I really don’t know – its times like that you just have to run with it and trust the talent.

The talented Mr Brudnizki’s interior truly did provide the perfect backdrop for our boisterous and confident crew.  On arrival Kitty the General Manager and able bar supremo treated our singles to super-chilled Prosecco, the perfect perk-me-up.  The treats didn’t stop there: we munched through the freshest and most delicate canapés you’ve ever seen – including Västerbotten tart, Shrimp Skagen, fennel, onion and caraway tarts and liver pate with pickled cucumber.  Hmm, might have overdone the latter, but hey the room was buzzing with conversation and dare I mention flirtation.

It’s no wonder the name of the restaurant comes from Aquavit a flavoured distilled spirit, that the Germans call Schnapps; like the French ‘eau-de-vie’, aquavit means ‘water of life’. Delicious, but in a rocket-fuel kind of way!

What a high-spirited crowd, they had great fun hatching plans with old friends and welcoming

over 20 new people who soon became immersed into the group like treasured and respected friends.

We are so looking forward to our last event of this year on the 27th of November. It really has been a pleasure running Rendezvous this year.

It wasn’t just the Rendezvous team who had such an amazing time at Aquavit on Tuesday, thank you so much for sending us such lovely feedback.

Good morning B, I just wanted to say thank you for another great Rendezvous evening.  There was a lovely mix of people and the energy in the room was high.

R x

Dear Barbara, what a fun evening in a cool location near the clubs etc, loved it, thank you for all your effort.  P x

Hi Barbara 

Another great fun evening!

J x

Barbara Brudenell-Bruce

Barbara is a classic entrepreneur; her career has been defined by a series of iconic start-ups within telecoms, entertainment, and fashion. She leads Investor Relations for a London-based consultancy raising capital for entrepreneurs. Alongside financial matchmaking, her passion is connecting people in person. Barbara’s innate sense of what it takes to fit people together, with a flair for hosting exquisite events, makes her a social anchor for all that know her.

More Posts

Absolutely Crabulous: A crawsome party.

Fancy Crab | 92 Wigmore St | W1U 3RD
Wednesday, September 12th

You’ve got to be quite daring to open a restaurant serving one thing on the menu.  Rendezvous being a daresome crew were intrigued enough about swanky Marylebone eatery Fancy Crab that we decided to create an event for our fun-loving guests centred around the supreme ruler of this crustacean space; the noble Red King Crab.

Fancy Crab on Wigmore Street is just minutes away from Bond Street station and a fantastic spot to drop into for lunch, dinner or a snifter and a snack.  We were side-shuffled away to a private room tucked away under the main restaurant, with its own private bar and plenty of booths to dive (see what I did there) into for a sit down.

If guests, like me, were unfamiliar with the giant Red King Crab, fear not as we were treated to an awesome crab experience. Apparently, these fancy crabs are caught off the north coast of Russia, boiled and immediately frozen for maximum freshness.  Fancy Crab’s head chef presented us with an enormous crab – I suspect with a leg length of 30 cm – however I was informed that this was merely a youngster as they can grow to five feet across – yikes!  The leg meat is the whole point and the sweetest of them all, the Hermes of the shellfish world.

The monster crab was cut up in front of us (with a few legs that had been prepared earlier) aided and embellished by beautiful young assistant Lou Lou who keenly deciphered the chef’s Russian to bonkers English – well not really but never let a good story get in the way of a very good story.

Lou Lou being ringside to the crab show handed me a wafer of crab meat and yowser did I get an unexpected taste bud jolt.  I’ve been to gin tastings and still not liked gin, whisky tastings and still not liked whisky.  Red King Crab tasting …..and yabba dabba ding dong – I’m hook, line and sinkered.  A taste bomb like no other. Date nights do you hear me, I want to go back to Crabulous!

Thank you Evgenia and Luis for looking after us so well and for all your delicious canapes.  We really appreciated the wonderful goodie bags including crab bibs – what fun!

Barbara Brudenell-Bruce

Barbara is a classic entrepreneur; her career has been defined by a series of iconic start-ups within telecoms, entertainment, and fashion. She leads Investor Relations for a London-based consultancy raising capital for entrepreneurs. Alongside financial matchmaking, her passion is connecting people in person. Barbara’s innate sense of what it takes to fit people together, with a flair for hosting exquisite events, makes her a social anchor for all that know her.

More Posts