By John Strogus
Ted Maurer Auctioneer Maurer & Wilson Auction Co.
As a child in the 1940’s and 50’s Ted Maurer liked to go to auctions with his parents in the Lancaster County area. During those years auctions weren’t listed in the newspaper. Ted and his family drove through the various towns in Lancaster County and looked for the newspaper offices. In the front window auction sales would be listed. They would be hung on a string (laundry style) across the window. His family would attend auctions that sold early period furniture from the 18th and 19th century along with other antiques. Living in the Lancaster County Ted had an interest in and studied the Amish style of furniture. He also loved the furniture and antiques he saw on the trips to auctions with his parents.
Ted became a school teacher and taught special education and English in junior and senior high school. After marrying he still liked going to auctions but couldn’t bring himself to spend the family budgeted money buying antiques at auction. He decided that a second job would be necessary. In 1967 he became an apprentice auctioneer. Then in 1968 he obtained his auctioneers license. The high quality antiques he saw as a boy weren’t readily available to him to sell at auction. Trains became more readily available to him than other antiques that he loved. He also had a passing interest in trains as a boy having a train set. So began Ted’s career from a toy train novice to one of the countries most noted authorities on toy trains. In 1971 Ted held his first toy train auction.
In 1966 the story really began. Ted joined the T.C.A. (Train Club of America). Joining the club he received a directory of members. In the front of the book it stated that if you had any questions or would like to see another member’s collection, to please contact them. He was living in Coatesville, Pennsylvania at the time. There wasn’t a member in Coatesville but there was a man named Ralph Smith who lived in West Chester, a city that was close by. The name Ralph Smith seemed like a common name and Ted was not the least bit intimidated by the name, so he called him. He was very gruff and said they weren’t entertaining visitors at the time. Ted asked if he could call him again, and he did call him several times with the same results. Finally Ralph gave in and said it would be okay to a visit. When Ted arrived, he realized he was in over his head, having only two train sets at the time. He was entering a palatial estate. When he went to the door he was directed to the servant’s entrance and down into the basement. When I went into the basement I saw trains I had only read and dreamed about. There were Presidential Specials, the Blue Comet, and the odd Circus Sets all crammed in there. Ralph Smith then invited Ted upstairs to have some coffee and cake. Ralph started to tell Ted train stories and give him advice about trains as a new collector. He was told to watch out for sharks, and not to by reproductions.
After chatting a while, Ralph looked at his wife and son and said to them, “Mr. Maurer looks all right. Do you think we should show him the collection?” They said, “Yes, let’s show him the collection”. So they took him to the first landing and very deluxe set of folding steps descended from the ceiling. They went up into the biggest attic the Ted had every seen, it took up the whole third floor. It was replete with every Lionel Train that had ever been made. They were all there, from the two and seven eighth inch gauge all the way up to the 400 Ease Steamer which was the premier prewar steamer that Lionel had made. He had twenty-one of them in all; different shades such as black, blue, crackle black, grey, gun metal grey, copper, coral. Ted left there dizzy. Their relationship came and went over the years but they shared another interest which is Mack Trucks. When they came in contact with each other over the years, they would talk about trains, but mostly trucks.
In 1980 Ralph died and Mrs. Smith held onto the collection for quite some time. But Ted always knew there was a great train collection somewhere in the family. During that time there was a fire and he was called on to estimate the loss. His relationship with the family continued, never that close but always friendly. There was always an undercurrent of discussion of what happened to the great Ralph Smith collection. Where was it? What was in it? Who was going to get it? The story was even told that someone offered a million dollars for it and they turned it down. Ted just bided his time, peddled his trains and one day he got the call. He was invited over to talk about the sale of the trains. Ted asked to see the trains, but he was told that they were all boxed up and labeled. He was taken to a building in West Chester and was shown five different rooms that were just piled with boxes of trains. The sale consisted of eight auctions and came to over a million dollars. The sale was total collector whip lash. There was stuff that was broken, stuff that Ralph had bought all over the United States. There were letters of correspondence with dealers all over the United States, from Maine to Florida and New Jersey to California. He had other things like Ghost Ships. Ralph had gone to an auction in New York and saw these ships. He had asked how much they would go for and that he would like to buy a couple. He was told that he didn’t have enough money to buy them. You never told Ralph Smith that he couldn’t do something. He bought everyone of them. They had been hand crafted by a lifer in the New York State Prison prior to WWII.
To this day Ted Maurer does not advertise to buy trains. People seek him out to sell their trains. He will receive a call from someplace in the country. He will visit them, look over the collection, pack it up and bring it back to Pennsylvania to sell. All his sales are absolute auctions, no reserves.
Kathy Maurer, Ted’s daughter, worked at her fathers auctions as a kid. She started taking the auction slips to her mother who was the cashier. Then she became a runner holding up items and delivering them to the bidder. When she turned sixteen her father told her she had to earn her keep. She went to International Auction School in Deerfield, Mass. She attended during the year between high school and attending college. Upon completing college she obtained her license. Prior to obtaining her license she apprenticed with her father. Her father was a very strong influence on her becoming an auctioneer. During college she swore that she wouldn’t become an auctioneer because it was too much work. It was crazy. She majored in communications and theatre. But after college she got serious about auctioneering, when her father offered her a good job. Kathy has been an auctioneer for twenty years. She also became a gemologist after going to school for seven months. Her gemology certification helped her get an estate auction containing al large collection of jewelry.
Kathy Maurer met Curtis Wilson by attending one of his auctions with a friend in the mid nineties. In fact, the auctioneer that was to help Curt didn’t show up, so Kathy filled in. Kathy felt that particular experience helped her become a more rounded auctioneer. She was away from her family where she felt comfortable. She was out of her comfort zone.
“It was scary and difficult and taught me to adapt to different situations”. She said. There wasn’t a lot of staff, so she had to pick up the slack by holding up the merchandise, calling the bidding, and even delivering it to the buyer.
Curtis Wilson started in the auction business with his grandfather when he was seven years old, in 1975. At the age of 15, Curtis went to the Reppert School of Auctioneering in Decatur, Indiana, where he received his license. He is the fourth generation auctioneer. His great grandfather started in 1911 with farm auctions. Curtis’ grand-father auctioned at the Media, Pennsylvania Armory in the 1950’s. It was there that he was approached by a woman that had a farm and couldn’t drive to his sales anymore because they were at night. He asked her to sell him the building next to her farm so she could just walk to the sale. She sold it to him and that is how they started their gallery in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, and operated by the family for many years.
His father has been in the business for over fifty years. At the age of sixty-four he has a sale coming up that is worth a million dollars, a farm with a William Penn Land Grant of 1722 will be auctioned off with no reserve.
At the age of twenty-three Curtis sold the contents of a house on Panama St. in Philadelphia. He sold what was left after Sotheby’s took out what they thought was the best. The quality of the items left was still great in the eyes of any collector. That sale brought a quarter of a million dollars.
The Maurer & Wilson Auction Company has been in existence for four years. Kathy says they started the business by default. Kathy was selling antiques and collectibles on her own and Curtis was auctioneering the same type of items. They now have an auction gallery in a building that has its own history. The building was used as a car dealership dating back to the early 1900’s up until just a few years ago. This reporter remembers the dealership well, buying his first car there, a black 1961 Chevy convertible with red interior.
The Maurer & Wilson Auction Company has united two auctioneering families with a rich past with the promise of an even brighter future.
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