Another Record Breaking Decoy Sale For Guyette And Schmidt

BOSTON, MASS.

:Editor's Note: For additional coverage and an image of the top lot at the July 30 and 31 sale at Guyette and Schmidt, see related article published in the August 5 issue by searching the articles archive with keyword - Guyette.

In with the new guard and out with the old? Not quite, but the most recent decoy auction at Guyette and Schmidt's was definitely a story of the new versus the old in a couple different arenas.

The auction took place over the weekend of July 30 and 31, and once again the final tally for the sale, more than $2.5 million, was well above presale estimates.

The first of the "new" things for the auction, one that seemed to be unanimously proclaimed for the better, was a change in location. When the auction firm first announced the change last year departing from the classic oceanfront location in Ogunquit, Maine, to downtown Boston, there seemed to be an audible moan from the regular crowd. Once over the shock of the new locale, however, auctiongoers discovered that the facility, unlike any other in Beantown, was easy to get to, spacious, luxurious, and an overly accommodating hotel.

The change in location also opened the door for one of the most important "new" things - a crop of new buyers, several of whom spent serious money at the auction. "There are a lot of people here that would not have made the trip to Ogunquit," stated Gary Guyette during preview on the morning of the sale. "This is an accessible location and there are a lot of people from outlying areas that just find coming here much easier, probably less intimidating as well."

When queried about the changes in the crowd in attendance, both Frank Schmidt and Guyette agreed that a whole new group of buyers have eagerly entered the market and are pushing the prices further and further past what many thought would be the limit, which was the landmark McCleery sale in 2002.

"We had a bunch of new people at this sale, first-time decoy buyers, jump right in and a couple of instances they spent money in the $100,000 plus range. And we had others that spent $40/50/60,000," he said. "They make a huge difference; the impact was amazing. One brand new buyer left us five serious absentee bids, all at or above the high estimates. He only ended up buying one of them, but he pushed the prices on every other one of those decoys right to the maximum."

Guyette reasons that mainstream magazine coverage that the market has received over the past couple years has caused the boom and is responsible for the recruitment of the new players. "When we saw articles in Forbes, Worth, Chesapeake Living and in sporting magazines like Outdoor Life, that is when we started seeing the real influx of new buyers."

The recipe seems to be working, but is it alienating or upsetting the old guard of decoy buyers? Guyette says no. "The old-time buyers, guys who have been at this 30 years and longer, are getting outbid, but they are also smiling because they are sitting on a collection that has 150 decoys in it. They realize their value is way up."

Four decoys offered in the auction eclipsed the $100,000 mark; a host of others came close. Crowell, Lapham, Wilson and Lincoln miniatures saw yet another marked increase in price structure both at the auction and on the floor of the decoy show being conducted in an adjacent ballroom.

Leading the auction was a rare old squaw drake by Orlando "Os" Bibber of Harpswell, Maine. In the original dry paint, the decoy was fresh to the market having been consigned from a small collection of decoys on the Maine coast. Guyette and Schmidt got the majority of the collection several years ago. The consignors, however, two retired schoolteachers, had decided at the time not to sell the Bibber. They had related that they had bought the three Bibber decoys out of a barn more than 30 years ago. The other two, a pair of hollow carved mergansers, were sold by Guyette and Schmidt about six years ago for somewhere around $15,000 each.

Estimated at $22,5/27,500, the Bibber old squaw decoy captured the attention of all of the old guard and at least one of the new players. Auctioneer James Julia opened the decoy for bidding at $15,000 and started off in $1,000 increments. Two or three bidders in the gallery jumped into the action, including Boston sporting art dealer Stephen O'Brien Jr, who was bidding from the front row. O'Brien suddenly jumped the bid from $20,000 to $25,000; it was hit again in the room and then the phone bidder, a novice participating in his first decoy auction, asked Guyette if he could jump the bid. "Sure," was Guyette's response and off the decoy went. At $75,000 there were still three or four people going strong; at $100,000 competition narrowed to O'Brien and the telephone with O'Brien finally claiming the lot at $162,300, including premium.

"I wish I could say that I bought it for myself," commented O'Brien after the auction, "but, I bought it on behalf of a client." "Os" Bibber decoys are rarely seen with the general consensus being that he only carved a rig for himself.

An extremely rare Nathan Cobb swimming brant decoy was another lot that saw serious competition from several in the gallery. "There are only about 25 or 30 decoys of this quality that were carved by Cobb," stated Guyette. The decoys with the "root" head mounted to the front of the body as opposed to the top are considered to be the rarest of the group. Strong absentee bids caused the lot to open at $90,000 with it selling to a buyer in the room at $137,000.

The Charles Schoenheider standing goose attracted a great deal of attention and once again a hefty price was paid for this example. Decoy expert and author Joe Tonelli discovered the rig of two floaters and ten stick-up geese hanging from a rafter in a barn in the 1960s while he was still in high school. He bought them all and peddled them to the top decoy collectors and folk art collectors of the time including Adele Ernest. Tonelli merely smile when asked what he paid for them, merely responding, "It was a lot back then." This time around the rare decoy was actively bid to $126,000.

One of the major surprises of the sale was the Robert Elliston bluewing teal that realized $114,425. "We sold this decoy in Chicago in '93 for $8/9,000,"said Guyette. Everyone knew the tune would be different this time around as several in the gallery were hot for the decoy, including the eventual buyer, who was rumored to have the hen mate in equally as good paint.

Another Elliston bird to do well was a rare preening mallard hen, circa 1880, with strong paint and good detail work. The decoy, fresh to the market, had been consigned from a family where it had passed down among multigenerations with the elderly consignor remembering it in his grandmother's South Jersey shore home as a child. Estimated at $20/25,000, the decoy did well with it selling at $46,000.

Two Massachusetts decoys that captured the attention of numerous collectors were the Captain Charles Osgood, Salem, Mass., 1820-1886, and the Lothrop Holmes, Kingston, Mass., 1824-1899, merganser and canvas covered old squaw, respectively.

The Osgood was one of only eight known mergansers known at this time with one pair prestigiously residing in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum. In the original paint with moderate wear, the decoy had been consigned from the collection of Gene and Linda Kangas and had been pictured on a calendar cover produced by the Shelburne Museum. A conservative estimate of $30/40,000 reflected a major bill repair, although the decoy did better than anticipated selling to a New York City folk art collector for $80,500.

The Holmes old squaw is believed to have firmly established a record price paid at auction for a canvas constructed decoy. The piece, dating to the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century, was in the original paint with a nicely mellowed patinated surface. Minor wear was evident where the canvas had shrunk around the wire frame body, yet overall the decoy was in very good condition. Estimated at $20/25,000, another brand new decoy buyer charged ahead and beat out several in the crowd when he paid an impressive $132,250 for the Holmes.

Yet another new player to the market jumped in head-first with the purchase of a classic Gus Wilson white wing scoter with a mussel carved in its mouth. The inlet head decoy had been illustrated in Engers Great Book of Wildfowl Decoys and had come from a rig of birds located on Beal's Island, Maine, in the 1960s. Estimated at $12/15,000, the decoy was hammered down at $42,550.

Shorebirds that did well included a golden plover by Elmer Crowell in good paint that sold for $43,125, a rig of six Harry Shourds shorebirds sold at $60,375 and a Nantucket golden plover $18,400. A Chincoteague curlew carved by Charles Clark, circa 1900, was another of the shorebirds to see active bidding with it selling at $24,315.

Crowell minis brought hefty prices with a dunlin bringing $3,162, a Canada goose $2,875 and a miniature canvasback drake sold for $2,760. Several lots of four Crowell miniature songbirds were also sold with prices ranging from $10,925 for a lot including a Downey woodpecker, a flicker, wood thrush and a woodpecker, to $8,050 paid for a lot consisting of a chickadee, warbler, nut hatch and an unidentified songbird. An immature sea gull by Gus Wilson also did well selling at $6,325.

The auction set a precedent this year as it became all-encompassing with lectures presented by authorities in the decoy field the day prior to the auction and a good looking and well received show taking place in the ballroom right next door to the sale. The atmosphere was much more festive than July sales of the past and everyone seemed enthused.

The next auction for Guyette and Schmidt will be November 9 and 10 in Cambridge, Md. This auction is conducted in conjunction with the Easton Waterfowl Festival. Consignments for that auction will be accepted until September 19.

Prices include the 15 percent buyer's premium charged.

For further information Guyette and Schmidt, POB 1170, St Michaels, MD 21663, 410-745-0485, or www.guyetteandschmidt.com.