Earning the highest price of the sale, $210,000, was a circa 1912 decorative carving of a wood duck drake by Elmer Crowell. Before the practice was outlawed, Crowell kept live ducks to use as decoys, and one of those was a wood duck. Having a live example allowed him to study the details of feathers and coloration. Only two other comparable examples of his wood ducks are known.
Review & Onsite Photos by Rick Russack
HINGHAM, MASS. — Collections assembled by the first and second generations of decoy collectors are coming to market and the strong prices seen across the board augur well for the collecting community. These older collections are being absorbed by new collectors who have plenty to choose from, both in terms of carvers and price points. Much current research about formerly unknown makers, rarity and the lore of the field, has been published, giving new and veteran collectors a wealth of information. The catalogs prepared by the auction companies also provide a wealth of information. Just as you don’t have to pay $400,000 for a Ferrari if you want a car, you don’t have to spend six figures if you want quality examples of carvings by the masters of the field.
The 450 lots in Copley Fine Art Auctions’ July 11-12 Sporting Sale provided the latest demonstration of the strength of the market for quality carvings and sporting art. There were working decoys, miniatures, decorative carvings and a wide selection of sporting art, including bronzes. One decoy brought six figures, and more than 40 items earned five-figure prices. In total, the sale realized $1,951,775.
Of the 10 highest-priced lots in the sale, six were created by Cape Cod’s Elmer Crowell (1862-1952). Bringing $210,000, the sale’s highest price, was Crowell’s circa 1912 decorative carving of a wood duck drake. It was one of almost 50 works by Crowell in the sale, including one of his very few paintings. The wood duck is one of the most colorful ducks and, according to the catalog, only two other carvings of this species by Crowell are known to exist, both in major private collections. This one remained in the family collection of the original owner until 1995. Crowell often used trained live birds as decoys, so he had access to a live wood duck to get the details of the feathering and coloring just right, and he took the time needed to capture those details in his finished carving. The use of live ducks and geese as decoys was put on moratorium by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and was eventually declared illegal in later legislation.
The second-highest price of the sale, $90,000, was achieved by Elmer Crowell’s golden plover, which came from the Chace collection. Made circa 1912, the bird is shown in transitional plumage with a variety of coloration.
Earning $90,000, the second-highest price of the sale, was a circa 1912 life-sized decorative carving of a golden-plover. As with the wood duck, the painting of the finished carving was extremely well-detailed, including the very tiny feathering around the bird’s eyes. The carving of the body was also detailed; the bill showed incised mandible separation and nostril carving, and the wing tips were lifted above the tail and showed the separation between the primary feathers. The bird came from a collection descended in the family of Evelyn Thayer Chace, one of the first women known to collect decoys. Chace was an ornithologist, a member of one of Boston’s elite families and assembled a comprehensive collection of mounted specimens. She built the Thayer Museum to display her collection. Several of the carvings in this sale were once hers. The auction catalog included an extensive biography of both Chace’s and Crowell’s contributions and backgrounds. The Chace collection also included miniature carvings by Crowell, offering today’s collectors an inexpensive way to own carvings by the master. A miniature greater yellowlegs, just 4½ inches long, realized $3,300; other Crowell miniatures sold for less than $1,000.
Another of the top 10 highest-priced items in the sale was a scarce Crowell item: an oil painting, “Cape Cod Summer Shorebirds,” showing a marshy shoreline with several birds. It also had previously been in the Chace collection. An old label on the back indicated that it had been painted in 1949 and identified some of the birds as an Eskimo curlew, two Hudsonian curlews, Wilson’s terns and a preening herring gull along with others. It realized $26,400.
A circa 1915 Canada goose decoy by Thomas Chambers brought $37,200. It was from the collection of George Secor and was being sold to benefit Delta Waterfowl.
As for carvings, it wasn’t only those by Crowell that bidders were seeking. A Canada goose decoy, 22 inches long, by Canadian carver Thomas Chambers (1860-1948) sold for $37,200. This decoy was in original paint, showing just light gunning wear. The catalog attributed the condition to the fact that these geese were relatively uncommon in the region and stated that fewer than a dozen geese in original paint by this carver are known today. A rig-mate pair of long-body canvasback ducks by Chambers earned $21,600. A mallard decoy, known in the collecting community as the “Norman Minnow Chaser Mallard” brought $19,200. The maker of this figure is not known but its vernacular name is due to the fact that the decoy is used as the logo for long-time decoy collector Hank Norman. It is believed that the decoy originated in the Gulf Coast region.
There were several Ontario decoys in the sale from the collection of George Secor. All were being sold to benefit Delta Waterfowl, a North Dakota-based organization dedicated to waterfowl conservation, on whose board Secor was a member for 10 years. The previously mentioned Thomas Chambers decoys were part of this group which also included carvings by John Wells, George Warin, Ken Anger, Samuel Hutchings and others. A circa 1919 cross-hatched pair of goldeneyes by Hutchings (1894-1995) earned $5,938, and a circa 1930 Canada goose by Anger (1904-1983) earned $7,800. In all, more than 30 decoys were sold for the organization’s benefit.
Decorative contemporary carvings included several by Mark McNair (b 1950). According to Kory Rogers, curator of the Bennington Museum (Bennington, Vt.), which holds one of the largest public collections of decoys, McNair is the only living carver whose work is in their collection. An exceptional standing wood duck drake, made this year, earned $20,400 while a large circa 1998 calling crow sold for $7,800.
Mark McNair is one of today’s master carvers. This wood duck drake, which he made earlier this year, sold for $20,400.
A blue-winged teal, in a stretching pose by Gilbert Maggioni (1921-2011) sold for $8,400, and a wood duck by the same carver earned $3,900.
Wood pigeons, considered pests and often hunted in England, are not common decoy subjects — at least not in the United States. However, a small collection was included in this sale. Most were considered to be factory-made but little else was known about them. A raised-wing white wood pigeon made by Trulock and Harris, circa 1885, in London, earned $2,875. Another made by Robert Lange in Yorkshire about 1890, earned $492. In all, there were seven lots of pigeons featured in this auction.
Perhaps the most unusual decoy in the sale, an example of Yankee ingenuity, was a patented Wales & Snow flapping-wing plover, made in Boston, circa 1868. The wooden body had a complex mechanism that was described in the patent by Wales: “I claim a decoy having wings hinged thereto, arranged to be operated by manipulation by the sportsman…” The catalog had nine illustrations of this oddity, including a drawing from the patent application. It also stated that this is the only intact example known. The unusual flapping-wind plover sold for $19,200.
“Canvasbacks on the Nanticoke River” by George Browne realized $39,600. Browne died in a shooting accident at the age of 40, so there are not many of his paintings.
The strong selection of sporting art included a painting that earned the sale’s third-highest price, while several others brought five-figure prices. Bob Kuhn (1920-2007) was an illustrator whose works appeared in numerous magazines and museums, including the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyo. His acrylic on Masonite painting of three giraffes reaching to graze on tree branches earned $49,200. Another of Kuhn’s works, “Bounding Buck and Does,” depicted two leaping white-tail deer and earned $17,220. “Canvasbacks On The Nanticoke River” by George Brown, (1918-1958) realized $39,600. Done in 1950, it depicted several birds in flight over a marsh. Because Brown died young, his paintings are few and hard to come by. The sale included a specialized collection of more than 40 works by Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896-1969), built by Alex Chester. Ripley was one of the foremost wildlife painters of his day, and Chester’s collection included watercolors, oils, charcoals, etchings and ink drawings. “Woodcock at Water’s Edge,” a watercolor signed and dated “1942” brought $16,800, and another watercolor, “Three Partridges in a Pitch Pine,” earned $21,600. The partridge painting was a gift from the artist, and on its reverse, it was inscribed, “3 Partridges in a Pitch Pine / A Lassell Ripley / (Done for William M Austin & wife Dot on their 25th Anniversary).” Most of Ripley’s etchings sold in the $1,000 range. There were also about 20 etchings by Frank W. Benson (1862-1951). While Benson’s subject matter was similar to Ripley’s, most of his etchings sold for less than $1,000. However, one, which had been the design for the 1935-36 Federal Duck Stamp, sold for $2,750.
After the sale, owner Steve O’Brien commented, “It went well, and we’re continuing to see numerous new collectors coming into the market. The birds from the major collections were strong. The Chace collection, which we had estimated at $303,000, brought $313,000. We had estimated the Secor collection would bring $220,000 and it finished at $210,000. The Crowell wood duck, which sold for $210,000, was also encouraging. We had sold that bird in 2011 for $115,000. All in all, it was a strong sale. We’ll be doing an online-only sale in October and our next cataloged sale will be in February of next year.”
All prices include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 617-536-0030 or www.copleyart.com.
