One of the world's most acclaimed antique and art dealers is the British haven for international collectors who seek out the conviviality of a purchase.

The effect of viewing the Partridge collection of antiques and objets d'art, housed in perhaps the most beautiful building in the world ever to be built as such an art gallery, is both exhilarating and awe-inspiring. There is a certain mystique that emanates from all great art, but it is possibly never more evident that in the world of antiques. The voices of the past float within the walls of this opulent gallery - fine English pieces whisper to the fact that they were ordered made by Louis XV as a present to the King of Spain.

Presiding over this renowned collection is the man who had its guardianship thrust upon him at the extraordinarily young age of twenty-eight. Thirty-eight years later, John Partridge's reputation precedes him as one of the masters within the rarefied international dealing circles - not only has he endured the continuity and survival of a business started by his grandfather in 1990, but in doing so has built the business to the extent that it is regarded as one of the finest in the world.

By his own admission, Partridge was far too young to take on the running of a major company of such a complicated nature at the age of twenty-eight - indeed, he had only committed himself to the idea of joining the family business five years earlier, after spending some time working in Australia. John's father had inherited the dealership from his father, but died tragically of cancer when he was only fifty-four, leaving John to take the role of Chairman he still holds today.