Bonhams Carpets, Rugs & Tapestries Auction Results Scraper

Scrape sold lot results from the Bonhams Carpets, Rugs & Tapestries department. Extracts title, origin region, rug type, period, dimensions (imperial + metric), estimates, hammer price, sale date, location, provenance notes, and thumbnail URL.

What it does

The actor crawls the Bonhams auction platform using a three-level discovery architecture:

1. Auction list — scans /auctions/results/ pages to discover past sales containing Rugs, Carpets & Tapestries lots
2. Sale page — processes each sale to enumerate lots; for dedicated RUG-department sales, all lots are crawled; for mixed-department sales, only the RUG lots from that sale's preview are included
3. Lot detail — returns a clean, fully typed record for each individual lot

Supported input modes

• Default (auction list scan) — scans up to 10 pages of auction results (240 past sales) for any that include the Carpets, Rugs & Tapestries department
• BYO sale IDs — provide specific Bonhams sale IDs (e.g. ["32361"]) to crawl directly, skipping the listing scan
• BYO lot URLs — provide a list of Bonhams lot detail page URLs to scrape directly (fastest mode)

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of lot records to return	100
lotUrls	array	Direct Bonhams lot page URLs to scrape	—
saleIds	array	Bonhams auction sale IDs to crawl directly	—
auctionPages	integer	Number of auction list pages to scan (max 10, 24 sales/page)	10

Output

Each record represents a single auction lot:

Field	Type	Description
lot_id	string	Unique Bonhams lot identifier
sale_id	string	Bonhams auction sale ID
sale_title	string	Name of the auction sale
sale_date	string	Sale date (ISO format YYYY-MM-DD)
sale_location	string	Sale venue and city
lot_number	string	Lot number within the sale
title	string	Full lot title as catalogued
origin_region	string	Inferred geographic origin (Persia, Caucasus, Anatolia, etc.)
rug_type	string	Textile type: carpet, rug, runner, kilim, tapestry, sumak, bag-face
design_pattern	string	Dominant design vocabulary (medallion, herati, boteh, etc.)
period_circa	string	Period as catalogued ("late 19th century", "circa 1880")
age_classification	string	antique, semi-antique, or modern
dimensions_imperial	string	Dimensions in feet and inches
dimensions_metric	string	Dimensions in centimetres
low_estimate	number	Lower pre-sale estimate
high_estimate	number	Upper pre-sale estimate
estimate_currency	string	ISO currency code for estimates
hammer_price	number	Hammer price realised (null if unsold)
sold_currency	string	ISO currency code for hammer price
is_sold	boolean	True if the lot sold at hammer
provenance_notes	string	Provenance and special notices
condition_notes	string	Condition report text
thumbnail_url	string	Primary lot image URL
lot_url	string	Bonhams lot detail page URL

Example output record

{
  "lot_id": "2684312",
  "sale_id": "25946",
  "sale_title": "Fine Carpets and Rugs",
  "sale_date": "2019-10-30",
  "sale_location": "New Bond Street, London",
  "lot_number": "25",
  "title": "A very large Mahal carpet, North West Persia",
  "origin_region": "Persia",
  "rug_type": "carpet",
  "design_pattern": "medallion",
  "period_circa": "late 19th century",
  "age_classification": "antique",
  "dimensions_imperial": "",
  "dimensions_metric": "638cm x 533cm",
  "low_estimate": 3000,
  "high_estimate": 5000,
  "estimate_currency": "GBP",
  "hammer_price": 4500,
  "sold_currency": "GBP",
  "is_sold": true,
  "provenance_notes": "",
  "condition_notes": "",
  "thumbnail_url": "https://bonhams-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/...",
  "lot_url": "https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25946/lot/25/..."
}

Notes

• Results are limited to the Carpets, Rugs & Tapestries department (Bonhams department code RUG)
• Mixed-department sales (e.g. Discovery Sales) include only the RUG lots visible in the sale's server-side rendered preview (up to 48 lots per mixed sale)
• Dedicated Carpets & Rugs sales enumerate all lots
• Hammer prices are only populated for sold lots; unsold lots have hammer_price: null
• Dimensions are extracted from the lot description text using pattern matching and may be incomplete for some older catalogue entries