Mak van Waay was an auction house founded in 1918 in Amsterdam as a branch of the family business A. Mak, which had been operating since the mid-19th century in Dordrecht. The Mak family had a solid experience in the art and antiques trade. So they decided to move to Amsterdam for strategic reasons. However, the real boost to the business came with the addition of H.S. Nienhuis in 1940, who took over the management in 1944. Nienhuis modernized the company and turned it into the country's leading auction house. He subsequently sold Mak van Waay to Sotheby's in 1974.