Being no. 2 is not easy. Just ask Avis, or Harvard, or for that matter, John Kerry. Being no. 3 is even tougher, but Kathy Doyle seems to be doing just fine.

Ms. Doyle is chairman and CEO of Doyle New York, an auction house on East 87th Street that reaches an international audience and has beat its larger rivals to the punch any number of times.

In 1962 the late William Doyle set up a showroom to handle the sale of estate items to antiques retailers. Several years later, he decided to try his hand at auctions, selling off American furniture in East Hampton; in 1972 he brought the sales to New York.

Ms. Doyle, armed with a master’s degree in parent and infant development, or, really, not much armed at all, took over management of the business when her husband suddenly died in 1993. Her husband had urged her to sell the firm, but Ms. Doyle was resolute.

Notwithstanding what must have been a difficult transition, over the years Ms. Doyle has demonstrated considerable energy and creativity in managing the business. Ann Le Coney, a well-known society decorator, admires Ms. Doyle’s success. “She’s done the most amazing job. She’s brought the firm into the 20th century. The people are efficient and personable. It’s a wonderful place to learn about antiques; you get great quality and value.”

Under Ms. Doyle’s leadership, the firm pushed forward in many directions. It was the first to publish its catalogs online in their entirety, thus broadening the firm’s reach and saving money, the first to sign up to do a joint program with “Antiques Roadshow,” and the first to produce vintage couture auctions.

Doyle New York has grown, both in its New York location and also by adding offices in Greenwich and Georgetown. They have also added regional representatives in key markets such as Florida and Arizona.

Today Doyle holds 35 to 40 auctions each year. The firm’s ambition, according to Ms. Doyle, is to “achieve the best prices possible” for its clients. Being smaller than some of its competitors allows the company to focus intensely on individual sales and to provide a high level of personalized service. This can lead to some outstanding results.

The firm is particularly well known for its sales of paintings and home furnishings, jewelry, and couture objects. It also holds some rather esoteric sales, including one called “Dogs in Art.”

This seemingly frivolous category generated one of the biggest surprises of the year. At the February sale, the house offered two paintings of dogs playing poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, a painter who in 1903 was commissioned by an ad agency to paint 16 works depicting dogs engaged in human activities. Thus was born a particularly quaint genre – one that has developed quite a following.

The pair of paintings were expected to bring in $30,000-$50,000 for the pair. Instead, the two oils went for $590,400. Nothing by the artist had ever sold for more than $70,000. Evidently there were three or four collectors around the world who were eager buyers – avid poker players who must have won the pot a great many times.

One of Doyle’s proudest moments was a sale of Chinese porcelains held in the fall of 2003. Included in the auction were about 30 lots of Yuan and early Ming pieces collected in the 1960s and 1970s by well-known connoisseur F. Gordon Morrill.

The challenges represented by the consignment were substantial. The competition was openly skeptical of Doyle’s ability to handle the sale, since among other things the company was virtually unknown in Hong Kong, home to many important Chinese art buyers.

Doyle went into heavy marketing mode, advertising and sending out direct-mail brochures. The collection was awarded to Doyle in June; it only had six months to prepare for the auction.

Rather than follow the lead of its established rivals in displaying certain pieces from the auction at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong, or some other customary venue, Doyle persuaded the China Club to host a reception for collectors. The chic locale drew le tout Hong Kong, and the buzz about the sale spread.

For the first time, buyers of Asian art came to New York for the auction. The result? The sale was a blowout, reaping $12 million. Most notable was a large “Pilgrim” flask, which was expected to sell for $500,000 to $700,000, but fetched $5.8 million. It was an all-time high for a piece of Chinese porcelain sold at auction.

The success of the sale was such that the International Herald Tribune was moved to not only review the sale, but to praise the savvy marketing approach taken by Doyle. “It was an exciting moment in time,” said Ms. Doyle. “We brought in new buyers, new energy, and earned huge prices for our client.”

Another cherished moment was the sale of a gown by legendary Parisian designer Charles Frederick Worth, bequeathed to a young single mother who was seriously in debt and not at all pleased to find that her inheritance was a couple of bags of “old clothes.” Quite by chance she noticed that the label appeared quite similar to one noted in a Doyle catalog, and presented it for appraisal.

It turned out that the gown, with a 10-foot-long train, had been ordered by her great-grandmother on the occasion of her presentation at the court of Queen Victoria. The gown was expected to go for under $20,000. Instead it fetched a record price of $101,500.

Doyle New York got its start handling the sale of estates, and over the years it has continued to provide that service for numerous Hollywood stars including Bette Davis, Rock Hudson, Gloria Swanson, and Rex Harrison. The firm will provide a so-called “clean sweep,” which essentially takes care of the sometimes emotional business of actually emptying a home.

It also offers free seminars on how to sell at auction, and, of course, appraisals. Every Monday morning its appraisers from various departments are on hand to give knowledgeable guidance on the value of art works and other decorative items.

What distinguishes Doyle from Sotheby’s and Christie’s? It’s smaller and consequently more accessible and personal. Doyle is also estate-driven. It sells much less dealer merchandise than the competition, which means that it has a higher sales rate (dealers typically are more likely to put a reserve price on their goods) and also that the objects are “fresher” – a key term in the art world. There’s nothing deader than a piece that has been through the auction circuit several times.

It’s also keen to strike a bargain. Far from fixing prices, Ms. Doyle claims that all fees are negotiable. It makes you want to clean out your closets, doesn’t it?