James D. Julia Auctioneers Receive Special Business Excellence Award From The Governor of the State of Maine
At
a formal ceremony on Monday May 14th, Governor Paul LePage presented
James D. Julia Auctioneers of Fairfield, Maine with the 2012 Governor’s
award for Business Excellence. This was the 22
nd annual
awards which are administered by the Maine Department of Economic and
Community Development and sponsored by Fair Point Communications. The
award recognizes Maine companies that demonstrate a high level of
commitment to the community, employees, and to manufacturing or to
service excellence. Only six Maine companies received this award this
year, and as per Governor LePage, “This year’s honorees represent
businesses that are regional, national, and International leaders in
their fields”. Governor LePage came into office with a promise to focus
on expanding job bases in Maine. His approach is to minimize
cumbersome regulations and to encourage business development in general
throughout the state. As such, the awards and what they represent were
very much a part of LePage’s philosophy for the State of Maine.
Governor
Paul LePage, center, congratulating Jim Julia on the receipt of his
Business Excellence in Maine Award. To the extreme right is Jim’s dad,
Arthur Julia, to Governor LePage’s left is Sandy Julia, and to the
extreme left is Fred Olsen, General Manager of James D. Julia, Inc.
The company conducts specialty catalog auctions of high-end antique collectibles, and is divided into four primary divisions:
Rare Firearms and Military Division.
Based on the sale of high-end quality firearms, Julia’s is currently
the leader in the world today. They do not sell the most firearms; they
sell the greatest number of valuable firearms at auction. For
approximately eight years now, their auctions have averaged just under
$10 million dollars each with the recent March 2012 auction generating
nearly $18 million dollars, which is by far the largest grossing
firearms auction conducted by an firm in the world.
Fine Lamp and Glass Division.
Julia’s rare lamp and glass division is one of the top three in the
world today. It regularly features one of the finest array of quality
lamps and glass offered including rare Tiffany, Handel, Pairpoint,
Quezal, and other lamps, exquisite French and English cameo glass,
high-end art glass including Tiffany, Durand, Quezal, quality Victorian
glassware, rare paperweights, silver, and jewelry.
Rare Toy, Doll, and Antique Advertising Division
is one of the top three of it’s type in North America today. In 2010
it set the new world’s record for the most expensive antique toy ever
sold at auction anywhere in the world. It being a small early American
Santa Claus and sleigh being pulled by goats that realized just over
$160,000.
Fine Arts, Antiques, and Asian Division.
This division is one of the leaders in the country today, and their new
Asian Division recently featured a number of items which had come from
the descendent of the last Emperor of China, in February of 2010, they
sold Washington’s hand-drawn map of the siege of Yorktown for nearly
$1.1 million dollars.
Julia also started a rare
decoy auction division many years ago, and sold that to his two partners
some years back. At the time, it was the largest decoy auction house
in the world. It still is the largest decoy firm in the world, and
while Julia no longer owns that division, he still serves as a
consultant and auctioneer annually for this firm.
The
Julia Company has always been aggressive in marketing their clients’
goods, and has been innovative in marketing techniques and special
services. Some of their approaches are unique in their industry. In
2008, when the economy began to go sour, Julia was prepared.
Anticipating the decline in the economy and in consideration of the
strength of his company at that time, he invoked a new approach to
commissions. All auction houses charge the seller a seller’s commission
and the buyer a buyer’s premium. The auctioneers keep both of those
commissions for their services. Just as the economy was beginning to
get very tough and auctioneers were faced with a declining number of
goods being offered to them, Julia’s invoked his 0% stimulus plan.
Essentially, he set up a commission structure for sellers that declined
as the average value of their consigned good increased. Therefore, a
consignor with expensive goods could expect as little as 0% commission
charge. While other auction houses were scurrying to cut costs and
services, Julia increased services and cut their commission fee, and as a
result stimulated greater response than normal and continued to attract
not only a large quantity of consignments but a greater quantity of
high-end consignments. Last year Julia’s initiated their Estates and
Collections Division, a unique division in the auction industry in that
it works with antique collectors to formulate eventual plans for a
collector’s collection. This year, Julia’s started a new satellite
office in Woburn, Massachusetts to better serve those clients in the
greater Massachusetts area and further on. Their new office is located
in the elegant and historic 1790 House located at 827 Main Street,
Woburn, MA.
In receiving the award, Jim and his wife Sandy
made it very clear that they were accepting this special recognition on
behalf of their company as a whole. Julia credits the success of his
company to what he calls in his opinion the finest auction crew in North
America. “It is a team oriented organization and we all pull together
to generate the success that we do.”
Julia is a member of
the Waterville, Rotary Club where he was honored with a Paul Harris
Fellow a few years back, and his firm was also selected by the
Waterville, Maine Chamber of Commerce in 2003 as the Business Person of
the Year. In 2006, Jim Julia was installed in the Maine Auctioneer
Association’s “Hall of Fame”. In 1993 he was awarded, by the Mid-Maine
Chamber of Commerce, a Certificate of Achievement and some years
earlier, he was awarded by the Gowie-Normand House, the title “New
England Auctioneer of the Year”. The company regularly travels all over
North America and sometimes into Europe for consignments for their
up-coming auctions.
For more information about James D. Julia Auctioneers, visit their website at
www.jamesdjulia.com
or contact them at James D. Julia’s on Route 201, mailing address: #203
Skowhegan Road, Fairfield, ME 04937, telephone number 207-453-7125.
