By Belladora Maria Ahumada
AntiqueWeek Correspondent

In a sense auctioneer Dave Kessler has the touch of a Renaissance man.

Although he has been an auctioneer since 1957, he has a wide array of talents and interests. He’s an author, painter, publisher, poet, musician, widely-noted teller of jokes and grand stories, and a great cook. Born in Richmond, Ind., he shortly moved to New Paris, Ohio where he grew up. And, within years, made his mark as one of the best auctioneers in that area along the Ohio-Indiana state line.

Kessler, recently, was named Best of the Best Auctioneers in the first-ever “readers choice” poll by a local newspaper to determine “the area’s finest businesses.” This poll was conducted in eastern Indiana and western Ohio.

This year, Kessler was also inducted into the select Hall of Fame during the Indiana Auctioneers Association Convention. For one of the few times in his life, the rapid-fire talking and compulsively joking Kessler was nearly speechless.

Kessler was dragged to the auctions at an early age. “My mother would just buy regular stuff which turned out to be antiques. She would drag me along with her,” said Kessler.” I bought my first item when I was 12 for 25 cents and sold it for $18. Then I was hooked.”
Over half a century Kessler has earned quite a following of auction fan-goers. He recalled one of his most unusual auctions. “Virgil Lafuse lived on a farm on the Indiana-Ohio line. He was a recluse and his house was full of antiques,” said Kessler. “The roof had fallen in so he lived in an old car under a tree in the yard. The house was full of wild dogs and a flock of chickens.”

Kessler humorously advertised the auction as “Wear old clothes, carry a big stick and come prepared to rough it. The traffic was backed up four miles. Prices went out of sight” said Kessler.
Kessler also auctioned off the famous Overbeck sisters estate in Cambridge City, Ind. Today Overbeck pottery produced by the sisters is well regarded.

“The house had been empty for 10 years with stuff still inside. The lawyer had pieces in his office he sold for $1.25 a piece.” said Kessler. Thirty five years later Kessler sold an Overbeck vase for $18,000.

“I’ve sold everything from airplanes to caskets and have raised more than a million dollars an hour selling real estate by auction. I think every item I sell is at least special and it’s likely that I may stretch that to spectacular at any given moment” said Kessler.

And, not only can Kessler orally stretch the normal to the spectacular, he is also quite adept at performing the same feat with the written word. He has become well known for his writing.

“I got serious about writing in the 1960s,” he said. “My first weekly column It’s Old Stuff ran into the late 1970s.” From the late 70s to about 1985 Kessler published The Auction Bottom Line tabloid paper. It had subscribers from all over the United States and Canada. He has written books titled Antiques Across the Auction Block, The Best of Dave Kessler and Selling Real Estate at Auction.

He did a column called “It’s Old Stuff” and still does one called “Skinny Cooks Can’t be Trusted” for Farm World that has run since 1981. His love for cooking led to his cookbook Skinny Cooks Can’t be Trusted which is now available in e-book form and can be found on Amazon.

“I have freelanced for all sorts of magazines and papers. Bylines in Saturday Evening Post, Editor & Publisher, Esquire for a short squib, Indianapolis Monthly, Indianapolis Newspapers Magazine, and lots of others. I have used many pseudonyms as well as my own name” said Kessler.

He also enjoys writing poetry. “I’ve been writing poetry for many years. Not traditional poetry. I like humor poems. Used to entertain my kids with such stuff when they were little. I entered legitimate poetry and “flash fiction” contests for the fun of it. I’ve had some good results” said Kessler.

But Kessler’s forte doesn’t stop there. Since the 1990s he has painted on second-hand boards, unframed canvas and foam plastic meat trays. “I have some very large interactive pieces you can play with, such as a 6-foot walking catfish on rockers which an adult can ride.”

To pizzazz things up Kessler had an art showing in a room with no lights, loaned out flashlights, served his famous “Minnesota caviar appetizers” (cubes of spam on toothpicks) and sold enough art to pay his rent for 1 and a half years. His artist signature is POKTA: Denoting himself as the eccentric recluse who is said to be “warmed from the inside out when he painted, and from the outside in when he burned them.”

“Actually, I managed to save many from the fire,” he says.
Kessler traveled for years when he was on staff of the Missouri Auction School giving seminars and teaching other auctioneers. With his admiration for the auction business he knows all the ins and outs. His advice to a new auctioneer in today’s world sparks from his lifetime of experience. His simple advice:

“Love the folks who attend your auctions,” he says. “Don’t chant so fast that you’re difficult to understand — you’re in the communications business which should result in making sales. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Develop a specialty. You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, do a single crooked thing to succeed as an auctioneer. Find the humor in it. And The Golden Rule still works.”
Now confined to a wheelchair Kessler keeps rolling on. “I still have high energy. I’ve even worn out a couple of wheelchairs” Kessler said.

His passion for life is as strong as ever and his memories of doing what he loves are still being written with that characteristic smile, a joke and a tall story.