“The auction world is never boring,” says Maury Humphries, jewelry specialist in the St. Louis office of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. “I’ve spent 30 years in the business, starting at the original Selkirk’s, and I still love it. Bruce Selkirk was my uncle.” When Humphries was 15 years old, Selkirk hired her to hang tags on items that were brought into the auction house. “One day a lady came in with sapphire jewelry, and something didn’t look right to me,” Humphries says. It turned out that the sapphires were synthetic. “My uncle turned to me and said, ‘You’re now the jewelry expert.’”
You were young for such a big job. How did you manage it? I educated myself from the moment Bruce asked me to specialize. In college, part of my major was theater. What people wore—the history of costume—was entertaining to me. As I studied, I wondered about the person who would have worn the garment: What country were they from? The stories the clothes and the jewelry tell… that’s what holds my attention.
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How is work different for you now? I have much more experience. I’ve grown in my profession. Today, I carry a jeweler’s loupe with me. I may have one around my neck on a chain, one in the car, several at home, and, sometimes, one in my husband’s pocket. I also have a black leather pouch, a toolbox, to help me identify stones and estimate values. I keep a diamond tester, a scale, a Leveridge gauge to measure loose and set stones, a Chelsea filter for colored stones, and a gem calculator. Technical skills help me do my job, but the love of hearing people’s stories, seeing the history in the jewelry, is still most important to me.
How does someone begin? I meet with people, look at what they bring, and find out what they want. Not everyone wants to hold on to jewelry. A big part of my job is helping people uncover what they want to do with the jewelry they’ve inherited.
Have you ever inherited jewelry and then needed to decide what to do with it? I love jewelry. It stays with me. I’m lucky to have jewelry from my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother, which I treasure. The most elaborate jewelry, which belonged to my great-grandmother, dates from the early days of the 20th century. In contrast, my grandmother was a minimalist in her choices. My mother was a forward-thinking, cutting-edge modernist. She often had things made for her. I sometimes combine the generations when I get dressed.
What’s been the most thrilling moment in your auction house career? An attorney brought in a ring for me to look at, the last of the family heirlooms, to sell for an elderly client who was in hospice and needed the money. She had taken it to a jeweler who judged it to be a large aquamarine-and-diamond ring and gave the attorney an estimate of $2,000. She brought it to me for a second opinion. I had a hunch. When I tested the blue stone, it turned out to be a fancy blue diamond. We sent it to the GIA—the Gemological Institute of America—for certification. The day of the auction, a client from California arranged to bid by phone. The attorney was sitting in front. I’m on the phone with the California buyer as the bids go into six figures. We won! The attorney had tears streaming down her face. Her client would be taken care of for the rest of his life. It was one of the most special moments of my career.
