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Centenary Year Overview

In 1914, with a meagre capital of Rs 100, Dadha & Company –Pharmaceutical Chemists - was started by three brothers Lakshmi Chand Dadha, Sobhag Mull Dadha and Lalchand Dadha, and in 1972, under Lalchand’s son Milapchand Dadha, the Dadhas were selected by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) to start India’s first ever joint-sector manufacturing company Tamil Nadu Dadha Pharmaceuticals Limited (TDPL) - a tribute to the enormous contribution of the Dadhas not only in the pharma industry but also in social causes in the form of various educational, medical and cultural trusts & institutions, for over 50 years. TDPL subsequently became a part of Sun Pharmaceuticals in 1997 – making the combined entity the 15th largest pharma company in India.

Fast-forward to 2007, another trio of Dadhas, lead by Lalchand’s art - collector grandson Maher Dadha and his sons Ankush Dadha and Apoorva Dadha along with a team of renowned experts established Bid & Hammer with the objective of expanding the Indian art and auction market, and in March 2013 with an exclusive auction at the historic Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur that was attended by major collectors from across the globe and also had a performance by international rock star Sting, Bid & Hammer continued to emerge as India’s Foremost Multi-Category Auction House striving to service every type of collector.

Purchasing item/s at B&H’s auctions

In 2014, to commemorate the family’s 100th year of enterprise, two auctions were held – one in Bangalore and the other in Delhi. However, vested interests along with insecure business rivals egregiously used the media to malign the 27th June 2014 ‘Significant Indian Art’ auction in Delhi as it was widely perceived to be a path-breaking auction with artworks from distinguished private collections including that from the estate of the Maharaja of Burdwan, artist Hemendranath Mazumder, artist Nandalal Bose, freedom fighter Radha Devi Goenka and actress Namrata Shirodkar amongst others.

Nonetheless, overcoming hurdles and transforming them into sources of opportunities is something that the team at Bid & Hammer has imbibed from the Dadha clan. Subsequently on 12th December 2014 we won a landmark lawsuit, to establish the authenticity of a Raja Ravi Varma work, becoming the only auction house in India to walk the talk and reassuringly stand by its expert opinion. Thus, the 100th year eventually turned out to be a triumph of honest, ethical and transparent business practices – the foundation on which Bid & Hammer has been built.

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