Gretchen Hause

Gretchen Hause is a Senior Specialist in the Books & Manuscript department at Bonhams in New York and Boston. She has worked as an auction specialist in the field for over 15 years.

Gretchen began her career in the Books and Manuscripts department at Christie's in New York where she worked for nearly 8 years. While at Christie's, she worked on a number of landmark single-owner sales, including those of the collections of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan and Huguette Clark, and the libraries of Kenneth Nebenzahl (exploration and maps), Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow (the art of book illustration), and Jean Perrette (travel and exploration). In 2017, she joined Chicago-based Freeman's | Hindman as the head of their Books & Manuscripts department; during her tenure she handled numerous books and maps for record prices and was responsible for exponential growth in sales. She secured and handled several important single-owner collections for sale, including the exploration library of Steve Fossett (100% sold by lot), the Eric and Evelyn Newman collection of cartographic and printed Americana (97% sold by lot), the Library of a Midwestern collector comprising high spots in all major categories, the and the literature collections of Richard C. McKenzie and Jack Charles Davis (100% and 97% sold by lot, respectively). She served as head of sale for the Private Collection of Secretary Madeleine K. Albright, another white-glove sale which realised more than three times the low estimate.

Gretchen has attended introductory and advanced bibliography and history of bookbinding courses at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, and holds a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. She currently serves as Chair of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, and is a member of the Grolier Club, the Caxton Club, the Bibliographical Society of America, the Washington Map Society, and the Chicago Map Society.