Around 1850, five companies: N M Rothschild & Sons, Mocatta & Goldsmid, Pixley & Abell, Samuel Montagu & Co. and Sharps Wilkins - that 150 years later would form the London Gold Market Fixing Company - were established and flourishing.
EST.
1796
The Sharps Pixley name came into being after the merger of two of these five, namely Sharps Wilkins and Pixley & Abell, to form Sharps Pixley & Company in 1957. Sharps Wilkins was the older of the two, first established in Great Winchester Street by William Sharp in 1796. For nearly 140 years the business was carried on in the same building in Great Winchester Street. Pixley & Abell was founded in June, 1852, by Stewart Pixley, a senior clerk in the cashier’s office of the Bank of England, originally in partnership with Henry Haggard, son of the principal of the Bullion Office at the Bank of England, and was trading at the time as Haggard & Pixley. Pixley and Haggards' aim was to establish an “honest bullion broker in London.”
The London gold market was closed at the outbreak of the war in 1939 and when in 1954, it reopened, the big four brokers were still in existence: Samuel Montagu & Co, Mocatta, Pixley & Abell and Sharps & Wilkins, plus Johnson Matthey and Rothschild which were either banks or very large firms in their own right. Gradually, some of the firms joined together, changing the composition of the market and explaining why Pixley & Abell and Sharps & Wilkins joined forces to form Sharps Pixley in 1957.
Later in 1966 Sharps Pixley was acquired by the Kleinwort Benson Group and then again by Deutsche Bank in 1993. Deutsche Bank ceased to use the Sharps Pixley name for its gold trading, but it was revived in 2010 when a new gold trading company was set up under the title purchased from its former owner, thus rebirthing the hundreds year old legacy.
Proudly part of the
Degussa Group
Today the business is privately owned by a family office in Switzerland and is proud to continue the family-run legacy instigated by its namesakes. Sharps Pixley sits within the DEGUSSA group of businesses, one of the largest sellers of retail physical gold in Europe. Degussa branches are located throughout Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and London through Sharps Pixley.
OUR COMMITMENT
Governance
We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of compliance, governance and risk management. Sharps Pixley is based in the West End of London and registered by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 715680.
As full members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) we maintain the highest industry standards ensuring integrity and transparency.
We are committed to maintaining appropriate capital at all times and ensure clients’ metal holdings are segregated from our own metal.
