Ronald Phillips obituary: eccentric antiques dealer trusted by royalty

The Times | 3 May 2026

Ronald Phillips never planned on dying, claiming he would live for ever. Even an Evening Standard cartoonist’s illustration of Ron (his preferred name) fishing an antique out of a swimming pool read “Ronald Phillips 5th February 1929 ad infinitum.” Now, if you walk down Mayfair’s Bruton Street, a photograph of Phillips — a man who used regularly to greet his own reflection in the mirror with, “By Jove, you’re good-looking” — sits in the window of his eponymous gallery.

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