1. PO Box 830 Phone: 207-453-7125
203 Skowhegan Rd Fax: 207-453-2502
Fairfield, Maine 04937 E-Mail: jjulia@jamesdjulia.com
Antique Auctioneer & Appraiser
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is written for a valued former employee of mine, Andrew Truman.
My name is James Julia and I am the President and Owner of James D. Julia Auctioneers. Based on
annual sales, we are one of the top 10 antique auction houses in all of North America. We have 4
divisions:
1. Rare Antique Firearms Division which is the leader in the world today for high end, valuable,
rare and historic firearms.
2. Rare Lamp & Glass Division which is one of the top 3 in the world today.
3. Fine Arts, Asian & Antiques Division which is one of the leaders in the country today.
4. Antique Advertising, Toy & Doll Division which is one of the top 3 in North America today.
Approximately 15 years ago, Andrew came to work for me. He had previously been teaching school and
had relocated to Maine. He took essentially an administrative position serving as assistant to the
Department Head of the Antique Advertising, Toy & Doll Division in my company. Andrew did a
wonderful job in his position and it was not long after he arrived, the Department Head tendered their
resignation. Needing someone to lead the Department and Andrew having done a very good job since
his arrival, we offered to put him in the position temporarily to see how he would do as we searched for
a replacement Department Head. As the result of our search, we determined we could not find anyone
else whom we thought would do as well or better than what Andrew was already so Andrew was given
the job full-time.
This is a division that my company has had for nearly 30 years and was the least performing division of
my company. However, during the history of this department, the past 15 years in which Andrew ran
the Department, the Department under his leadership performed better than any of the previous
Department Heads. Nonetheless, while we were one of the top 3 in this field, there were numerous
other competitors and market share was highly competed for. Subsequently, despite the fact that
Andrew had done a better job than any of his predecessors, still this Department was a far lower
performer than any of my other Departments.
Andrew worked very hard during his tenure to meet the goals established for him and embraced
company policies and protocols. Over these past years, our Firearms Division has produced
extraordinary results and in the past 2 years, my company had struggled with the idea of expanding our
Firearms Division without expanding our company at the same time (I am 68 years old and attempting
to lessen the amount of work I do, not increase it). What made the most sense was to dismantle the
Antique Advertising, Toy & Doll Division and add more days to the Firearms auctions. However, despite
the fact that it was the best business move, Andrew had worked hard for many years and continued to
work hard and I was reluctant to dismantle the division.

2. A short while ago, a competitor came forward and offered to purchase that division from me to expand
his and tendered a significant offer to purchase this division and essentially made an offer I could not
refuse. Coupled with everything else, I had to sell and dismantle the division.
I was very sorry to have to do this but it was, as I said, an offer I could not refuse and unfortunately
there were no comparable positions for Andrew within our company to reassign him to.
Andrew has many assets that I know will be a great benefit to many employees. Some of them are as
follows:
1. A self-starter and initiator: Andrew ran a division by himself with minimal oversight and
involvement from the upper management. He was a self-motivator, got things done and
applied himself. For me as the employer, a very valuable asset.
2. Great personality and client repartee: A certain portion of clients we work with, consignors and
buyers, might deal with us on only one or two occasions and will not have a need for an
auctioneer from that point on. But a large segment of our business comes from repeat buyers
and repeat consignors. Thus how a client is handled by our staff has a great deal to do with the
longevity of the client’s relationship with us. As I said, Andrew always seemed to be sensitive to
his customers’ needs and worked hard at maintaining good relationships. During Andrew’s
tenure here, I received many, many unsolicited complimentary letters from clients who worked
with him indicating how much they appreciate Andrew, how he handled things for them, and
how much they appreciated Julia’s. This asset was a very important one to me as an employer.
3. Intelligence and skill set: Andrew is a college graduate with a major in English and he is a very
strong writer. In addition to all of his responsibilities associated with his division, on occasion,
he would have to write catalog descriptions (normally catalog description were done by experts
consultants that we hire on a temporary basis to catalog goods but sometimes the job would fall
on Andrew’s shoulders). Andrew’s proficiency with writing early on, earned him the position of
Head of PR. In this position, for many years he was responsible for all press releases coming out
of our company which might be used announcing upcoming auction or announcing the sales
results of past auctions. Andrew did a great job along these lines. His intelligence, his mastery
of English and writing, presented a great “face” for my company. This was a very important
asset to me as an employer.
4. Management skills: As I said, Andrew’s past job was as an English teacher and had not been
involved in sales. In his new position, not only was sales important but management skills as
well; utilization of his administrative assistant, utilization of specialty consultants that flew in
from all over the United States to work on the catalog for us. In addition, Andrew needed to
interact from time to time with the photography department, the graphics department, etc.
Despite his lack of experience in this arena, during the period of time he was here at Julia’s, he
became very proficient at managing all the various entities that went into making up a
successful auction. This was a very important asset to me as an employer.
5. Able to juggle many tasks simultaneously: As Department Head, Andrew for each auction
regularly dealt with literally hundreds of potential consignors. He dealt with multiple expert
catalogers, with his administrative assistant to be sure that advertisements were placed in a
timely manner in multiple publications. He was responsible for the production of a highly
sophisticated and lavish catalog (one of the best in the industry). He was responsible for fielding
and interacting with sometimes thousands of buyers and dealing with the many questions they
may have. After the auction there was always problems and issues that needed to be dealt with
and this was also part of his task. Sales, management, administration, writing, interpersonal

3. communication skills; all came into play with a myriad of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that
Andrew faced on a daily basis. This too was a very important asset to me as an employer.
There are many other assets that Andrew has displayed during his tenure here with my company but
suffice to say, he was a valued employee and it was with a certain amount of reluctance that I made the
inevitable decision I had to make. I am truly sorry that I do not have a position in my company for
Andrew right now but if any or all of these assets I have mentioned above are important in the position
that you now have open, I can say that I think Andrew would be an excellent candidate. I would be
more than happy to discuss in more detail the attributes of Andrew or answer any questions you may
have. I strongly recommend Andrew Truman.
Sincerely,
James D. Julia
President
James D. Julia Auctioneers