Nye & Company Brings NYC Auction House-Feel to Bloomfield

Perhaps you know, or have seen, John Nye. After all, the owner of Nye & Co. Auctioneers, Appraisers and Antiques (20 Beach St.) has appeared on the popular PBS show "Antiques Roadshow" and will be doing so again.

But to really know him, to really deep down see what he’s about, you have to visit the Nye & Co. Bloomfield showroom. The excitement is evident in his voice, in his eyes.

“It’s amazing,” he responded when I ask him about his career. “No two weeks are the same. I love that it’s so different and varied. There’s a huge psychological component to it. We go into someone’s house and make them feel at ease, and understand their situation. It’s a good portion of our business.”

Nye, who started at Sotheby’s in Manhattan back in 1988, never planned on his current career.

“I toyed with being an architect,” he said with a laugh. “I decided against it because it would be an avocation instead of a vocation.”

He entered Sotheby’s as an intern and left in 2003 as director of American Furniture and Decorations, where he rose to senior vice president. He purchased the firm of Dawson’s Auctioneers & Appraisers, and he and his team have now been in Bloomfield for two years. Most of the firm’s work is in the tri-state area.

"Manhattan, Philadelphia, Short Hills, South Orange, and we get an occasional call in Bloomfield,” he said.

Nye mentioned that he would love to have more business in the township itself.

“The great thing is dealing with people, the items the people have, and visiting the houses," he said.

The Beach Street and John F. Kennedy Drive Nye facility is 25,000 square feet.

“This facility, once you leave New York, there is no mid-level facility like this,”  Nye said, as he showed me the firm’s bottom floor which is being readied for a new show. “It’s New Jersey’s answer to a New York auction house.”

Auctions are held every six weeks and some of the items on-site during my visit were a Queen Anne Highboy dresser, a tall-case clock, as well as other types of furniture, toys, dinnerware, and much more. Recommended is a visit to the site itself, and perusal of their catalog when available on the company website.

John Nye and his wife, Kathleen – who focuses on the silver and jewelry end of the business - are 23 years wed and have three children. Tupper, 20, is a junior at the University of Vermont; Hannah, 15, is a student at Maplewood’s Columbia High School; and Avery, 11, is in the sixth grade.

Nye & Co. Auctioneers, Appraisers and Antiques
20 Beach St.
973-984-6900
nyeandcompany.com