James Charles (known as Jim) Phillips began trading as an antiques dealer in Saltburn, North Yorkshire, in 1948. He was born in 1919 in North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, to Robert and Margaret Phillips. Both from Lancashire, his parents moved to Middlesbrough in 1912 when Robert Phillips was transferred with the police force to Yorkshire.
Jim trained as a wood machinist at aged 16, and made spitfire propellors during the Second World War while working for F. Hill and Sons in Stockton-on-Tees and York. He began dealing in antiques after the war, following a friendship with a Jewish antique dealer in Middlesbrough.