Q&A: Amelia Jeffers – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

For a great antiques-world success story, one need look no further than Ohio auctioneer Amelia Jeffers, who recently hung out her own shingle after nearly 30 years in the business. With more than a few high-profile collections crossing her block in recent months, we wanted to check in to get some insights behind what drives her and some of the reasons behind her success.

For readers who may not be familiar with your story, can you tell us how you got your start in this business?

My start in life and business was pretty unconventional. I had a very stereotypical Appalachian West Virginia background, did well in school and went to college, but dropped out to work and help my family financially. I stumbled into the art and antiques business when my former husband introduced me to Tom and Carolyn Porter, who owned Garth’s Auctions. In my early 20s, they were inviting us to meet them at shows and sent us subscriptions to The Bee and MAD. One night after a show, they asked if we would consider coming to Garth’s as their successors, and I was all for it. We moved to Ohio in 1996 when I was 25, and my first “job” at the company was in the cataloging department as an assistant. We were partners with the Porters until 2004 (when they retired), and that time with them — particularly with Tom — was pivotal to my development as an auctioneer and professional. They taught me everything important about how to treat people, conduct myself in business, and instilled a true love for aesthetics, quality and craftsmanship.

How has your journey progressed, from then until more recently?

After the Porters retired, my business partner and I ran the business successfully through some challenging times (including the dreadful downturn in 2008-2010). My role in the business evolved over the years. When my four children were young, and the Porters were still involved, I stayed mostly behind-the-scenes, working in the cataloging department and wearing the human resources and marketing hats (as you do when you own a small family business). As the kids got older, I started to travel and work in sales. Being in business together is tough on a marriage. In 2017, I made the difficult decision to get a divorce and leave the company — one of the hardest decisions of my life. Garth’s was like a fifth child to me.

In 2023, I was tracking the struggles that seemed to be happening at Garth’s. I expressed my interest in buying the company but didn’t hear back and just kept moving forward with my plans to incrementally grow the business I had already started. In October, an attorney for Garth’s called me, and without going into too much detail, I had the opportunity to assume their warehouse lease and existing consignments, including the lifetime collection of Vivalyn and Bruce Knight — who I have known since I started at Garth’s. Those first few weeks of November were a blur — in fact, November through March was a blur! The Knight collection was a great boost to the momentum my team and I had already been gaining.

When and why did you decide to strike out on your own as an auctioneer?

After leaving Garth’s, I was resigned to walking away from the auction industry, because I didn’t want to compete with a company I had helped to build. In 2018, Peter Chillingworth (one of my mentors and close friends) asked me to conduct an auction of his inventory and personal collection as he retired from a 60-plus-year full-time career as an antiques dealer. I tease Pete that he dragged me back into the business. His auction was three days long and grossed more than $500,000. Sitting on the block that weekend, I got hooked again and had to get back in full time. From 2019 to 2021, I did some outside sales work and freelance auctioning for auction houses in the Midwest, including Cowan’s, Hindman and Selkirk. At the end of 2021, realizing that I was referring out nearly $1 million a year of business to other companies, I decided to just take the leap and start my own company. I actually started out of my garage. I didn’t want to take on any debt, and I just wasn’t sure how it would go. Within the first six months of 2022, I had enough momentum that I approached the Delaware County Historical Society — which now owns the former Garth’s Auction Barn — about conducting my in-person auctions there. Garth’s had moved into downtown Columbus, and the barn was being used as a wedding venue. The historical society received me with great enthusiasm and we struck an exclusive deal for me to conduct auctions several times a year. Stepping back into the barn was an emotional process; it is where I had “grown up” in the auction business and raised my kids. My first auction “back” in the barn was the fall of 2022. Every preview and sale since then has felt like a homecoming weekend with big crowds and a wonderful “old-days” community vibe.

There are few women auctioneers with eponymous auction houses. As a woman, what are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career?

My friends tease me that I should feel grateful to look young for my age, but it doesn’t always help in business. The combination of being a woman and looking younger than I am sometimes engenders skepticism about my knowledge or experience. But within the industry, I have felt respected by my peers. Tom Porter led with a lot of humility — one of my favorite quotes from him is “the only thing we are expert in is selling your ‘stuff.’” His approach taught me to maintain deference for others’ experience and expertise, declining opportunities to engage in debates about the material we sell, how we sell it, or who is bidding. Being a working mom obviously comes with challenges, but I experience the industry to be geared toward family businesses. My kids have grown up going to antiques shows, museums and working auctions. I never felt that a client expected me to sacrifice my role as a mother. Maybe I have just been lucky, but I have felt great partnerships with clients and peers.

Are there things about you and your work ethic or style that stand out? Another way of asking that might be “what sets you apart from your competition”?

Probably what I mentioned above, and that I lead with my heart. What that means is that I believe in loving people well, meeting them where they are, and finding out how I can serve them best, rather than what serves my interests best — whether it is an employee, a buyer or a seller. In a world that is focused on personal success and getting ahead, it is harder and harder to be focused on what is right for someone else rather than yourself. I have always found that when I do, things turn out best for my team and me in the end.

Also, my kids joke that I can outwork anyone. I would guess that might be true — it is about the only boastful thing you will hear me say. I grew up in total poverty, and my family worked very low-paying blue-collar jobs. We were homeless at one point. For me, if the hardest thing I have to do is work a few more hours or make a few more calls, I feel like I have it easy. I love my work — so that helps for sure, but I work at least 50-60 hours a week on average — more when it gets crazy.

Finally, I have no ego in it. All of my training has been on-the-job. I wasn’t even sure I wanted an eponymous firm — frankly, I’m still not. It seems strange to hear the phones being answered “Amelia Jeffers, Auctioneers & Appraisers”!

You’ve had some very good sales recently. Do you mind giving us some insight into your numbers for the year and what those mean to you?

Since my Thanksgiving 2023 auction, my team and I have sold 5,600 lots for a total of more than $4.3 million. We have four more auctions scheduled for 2024, with some great things in the pipeline. Garth’s sold about $3 million a year for the past few years, and my company did just $1 million last year. To be 6 months in and beat the combined annual sales of both feels great, but I am very, very driven — my goal is $7 million for 2024. With what we have planned, I feel we should get close, if not exceed that number.

You’ve had the opportunity to handle some great objects, both in the course of your career and more recently. Can you share some of these with our readers?

This is always the question when I am socializing with people who are not in the business. It is hard to answer! Many things come to mind — including the first time I called (auctioned) an item over $200,000 back at Garth’s. I have sold over $100 million of material and tens of thousands of items over the course of my career. Here are a few things that come to mind, but seriously — this could be a book, because I have had the privilege of handling some great things!

The most recent would be the Kentucky sampler in my May auction that sold for $25,200 and basically helped me to land that single-owner collection. While we were discussing their consignment, the sellers were intrigued by another Kentucky sampler I had sold back in 2022 for $22,800. That first sale, combined with the research I provided for their sampler, made them feel confident that I was the right auctioneer for them.

Another is the Alexander Calder gouache in my November 2023 auction. The consignor had been advised to take it to New York, but she trusted me, and I was willing to take everything “else” in her collection. I have a ton of fine art contacts, and the head of an international gallery told me it was a $40/50,000 painting all day long. It brought $72,000. I like a challenge…and I really love knowing that I helped a seller get the best price.

The unusual and folksy heart and hand carved marble folk art piece in my May auction that brought $1,920 is something I would have loved to have owned. I love anything with a heart motif, and I especially love heart and hand (my gavel even has an inlaid heart and hand on one end). “Hands to work, heart to God” is pretty much where I try to live every day.

You have plenty on your plate right now but if you take the time to think down the road, where would you like to see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

Columbus, Ohio, can make a football fan out of anyone and I have reinforced with my team the football mentality of focusing on the game we are in, not the one next week. I could not have predicted the last 12 months, let alone 5-10 years from now! At 52 years old, I know I plan to be doing this for quite a while — even though I have been doing it for 26 years, I feel like I am just getting started. I am a competitor at heart, so I plan to keep giving the other auction houses a run for their money and demonstrate a better way to do things. I fell in love with a personal business back in the 1990s. A lot of auction companies have become huge machines, driven by shareholder and investor interest. We are highly focused on the relational aspect of the transaction.

—Madelia Hickman Ring