“Going, going, gone!’’ An auctioneer is required to be a salesman, entertainer, negotiator — and mathematician of sorts. Bidding increments increase as the price goes up: It’s $100 up to $2,000; then $250 up to $5,000; $500 up to $10,000; and so on. So the first time that Lucy Grogan took the podium at Grogan & Co., she was nervous about the bid calling, as well as being ringmaster of the entire sale. But to her surprise, the increments were ingrained in her after a childhood of listening to her father rattle off the numbers. “There’s definitely a rhythm but so much is dependent on just reacting and responding to the bidding,’’ said Grogan, vice president and gallery director of the family-run business on Charles Street in Boston. She spoke with Globe correspondent Cindy Atoji Keene about the intricacies of learning the auctioneer trade.
“Fewer and fewer people are coming to an actual auction these days. There are a lot of empty seats. Those who do attend are coming for the ‘show’ — or they’re old-school buyers and dealers who like to be in the room. In the past, we’d have 250-300 people with standing room only; now it’s 75-100. But prices have not been affected. Everything is listed online these days, and we take bids online and over the phone. It’s still a live auction, and my father, Michael, or I are on the auction block, shouting out the numbers, building excitement about the sale.
“The most expensive lot I’ve auctioned is a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond rivière necklace that we sold in March. The necklace ‘hammered’ for $210,000. For items like this, auctioneering is thrilling because bidding is so active. It’s actually more nerve-wracking when the audience is not engaged because the pressure is on to inspire some bidding.
“An auction is all about getting a good buy and finding a deal or ‘sleeper.’ It takes grace to have control of the audience yet not rush the auctioning process. It’s amazing how many bids come out of the woodwork at the last minute. I like to keep things pretty light and joke around — at the end of the day, we are just selling artwork, not saving lives or reinventing the world. The buyers don’t need a big sales pitch — they are there because they want to buy. I know the regular buyers and their bidding technique; some would rather fly under the radar and remain incognito, just giving a tiny nod or making eye contact.
“We have another auction coming up on Oct. 23, and since I run the jewelry department, I’m excited about a 4.37 carat, D-flawless diamond. I came across it while appraising brooches for a client. She thought [it] was costume jewelry in her mother’s jewelry box, but it’s possibly a $40,000 to $60,000 item. The most interesting part of my job are the people I meet and the stories I hear. So much of the physical stuff is wrapped up in family lore.’’
Cindy Atoji Keene can be reached at cindy.atoji@gmail.com.
