“My father started DuMouchelles in 1927 and somehow he stayed afloat during the Depression,” Ernest (Ernie) DuMouchelles said as he stroked his white beard. “He had a good reputation because one of the important things he stood for was to be honest; and it is so today.
Honesty is a big thing in the auction business and it’s served us well.”
DuMouchelles occupies four floors of a six-story brick building directly in front of the General Motors Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. Like any auction house, there is a lot of traffic through the display and sales rooms. But the location just a block east from the Windsor Tunnel brings a lot of folks from Canada as well. Besides the 5,000 square feet at the main location, DuMouchelles owns a warehouse for storage.
Ernie told a good story, recalling how he grew up in the business. “When I was about eight years old, my dad told us that we were going on a vacation to the northern part of the state.” He laughed as he told how excited he and his siblings were about swimming in Lake Superior which was so cold they barely got their toes wet. “We ended up at an estate in northern Michigan packing barrels with things for the next auction.”
Local to Global
For many years DuMouchelles capitalized on the vast wealth that was concentrated in the Midwest. Ernie reminded me that the firm sells estates from all over, but he remembers well the wealth built though the local mining and lumber industries. He recalled the estate he sold for Gerber heirs – elegant taste. “We also had the Gibson estate; at one time they made refrigerators and they developed the first Coldspot label for Sears.”
Ernie also remembers multi-generational business at DuMouchelles. Local families would buy and sell through the firm just as their parents and grandparents did. While their business is too young to have known and represented Henry Ford, they know the next generation well, and have worked with the Fishers, Kelloggs, and other fine families.
Today, the auction business has gotten much larger because of the Internet; DuMouchelles sells worldwide. “There was a time,” Ernie said, “when a buyer needed to come to Detroit to bid. Today anybody can view an item online and can probably see it better and from more angles than in the showcase. You can bid on a cell phone from anywhere in the world.”
Case in point: a recent sale of a jade figure for $250,000 to a man in China. The man never left China, but he was able to find it online. The firm also sold 50 Worcester porcelain birds decorated by Dorothy Dotty to a collector in Australia – just another example of how the website has opened up the auction market.
“I’ve never worked in any other business but this,” Ernie remarked. “But I love the art and antiques and I love the collectors. They’re passionate people who are so excited about their specialty. You can learn more from a collector in 10 minutes than you can from spending a morning in a reading room with a load of books on the same subject.”
He recalls a sensational paperweight collection that included Baccarat, Clichy, and St. Louis examples. “They were beautiful weights, even though they’ve gotten very pricey,” he admitted. “But I watched passionate collectors stretching their budgets to get just the right items.”
Tales from the Sales Room
A memorable sale was several years ago when the firm was asked to auction the Vinkley estate. Mr. Vinkley lived in an old firehouse right under the Ambassador Bridge; the firehouse was filled with vintage guitars, old motorcycles, and antique firearms. The sale room was packed with 800 men and only 5 or 6 women, but there was more excitement in the room than Ernie can ever remember.
Another wonderful sale started with a doctor’s estate. He had incredible Tiffany, Steuben, and other beautiful glass and it was all packed away in closets and cupboards still in the bags and wrapping that it came with.
“When you think about it,” said Ernie, “we used to have 50 pieces of Tiffany in a single sale. In retrospect, they were very affordable compared to today. In the ’60s a Tiffany lamp might go for $200 or $500. Today $50,000 or $60,000 would be more realistic.”
One of his funnier moments, Ernie said, was in the days when runners would carry each lot up to the front as it was being sold. One item was an urn that the runner turned over to show the underside, only to see somebody’s ashes fall all over the floor. “Everybody was aghast because it was pretty apparent what fell out; as I remember, it killed the sale.”
The room was always full of different types of people from all walks of life. Ernie told me about a couple who came to auctions frequently. They would sit in the back row and their chauffeur would pour champagne in their glasses while the bidding went on. Just two seats away would sit a man wearing overalls. It’s the same with the items up for sale. One time Ernie picked up an untitled painting from a gentleman farmer in Kalamazoo who hoped it might sell for a modest amount. Research indicated that it was a genre painting by Buffalo portrait artist Thomas LeClear that might go in the $50,000 to $80,000 range. It ended up selling to a man in Paris for $4.3 million. For the farmer, it was like winning the lottery.
Multi-Generational Business
“I think what we’ve done here is to establish trust building relationships from generation to generation,” DuMouchelles finished. “If you call an object Tiffany, it has to be Tiffany or your customers get leery.” He added that it’s possible to make a mistake, just don’t throw words like “eighteenth century” around unless you mean what you say. “My brother Larry and I have been auctioning since the early sixties and we have my nephew Bob and two nieces working with us. More recently two sons and a daughter are working their way into the business.”
Ernie feels that a good auction house has to keep the estimates low and conservative without a high reserve. That way the client has the chance that they’ll get a bargain, but items still may go for a record price. “Everybody wants to get the best item; all it takes is enthusiasm on all sides. Even in the midst of this economic crisis our business is good. People are putting money into fine jewelry; upper end art is in demand; and our estimates remain realistic.
“I really love the business. I enjoy seeing people fall in love with things and this kind of feedback is fun for me. It’s good to remember that every collector starts with a single piece. We see the collections evolve, but for me it’s the hunt that keeps me in the business. I never know where I’ll find the next great object.”
DuMouchelles, 409 East Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan 48226, (313) 963-6255, www.dumouchelles.com. |
Larry DuMouchelle at the podium as Ernest looks over the audience.
Bizarre things turn up at auctions. We know that chairs are necessarily shaped by the human body, and we call their parts back, arms, elbows, seat, legs, and so on. But this one takes the relationship to extremes.
Star Wars collection gains the admiration of the younger members of the audience.
Irving Bacon, A Duel between the Lines, oil on canvas, 1911, sold for $64,350.
This striking painting shows Buffalo Bill Cody in his renowned 1876 clash with the Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair (Yellow Hand). After killing each other's horses, the two men had a short hand to hand fight, which ended with Cody killing and scalping Yellow Hair. Infamously touted as 'The First Scalp for Custer,' the incident gave rise to a scene that Cody would feature repeatedly in his Wild West Shows. Cody explained in a 1903 letter to Bacon that although he didn't believe in scalping, he had wanted revenge for the loss of his friend General Custer at The Battle of Little Bighorn.
Ernest DuMouchelles searching through Dr. Cjuz's estate for art glass.
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