HINGHAM, MASS.- According to Steve O’Brien, carvings by Elmer Crowell account for 28 of the highest 100 prices achieved by decoys at auction. Therefore, it was no surprise that Copley’s three Crowell masterpieces would earn around $1 million – they came from the Linda Johnson collection, part of Copley’s July 9-10 sale, for which they had produced a separate 138-page catalog with her 67 lots.

These three decoys, illustrated on the dust jacket of John and Shirley Delph’s New England Decoys, were well-documented and known to collectors. The skyward-gazing plover earned $372,000, the turned head plover earned $324,000 and the feeding plover earned $284,000. The bird in the feeding pose was passed at the sale but sold about an hour later. In all, five decoys sold for more than $100,000 each and a seven-volume royal octavo set of Audubon’s Birds of America also earned over $100,000. The wide selection of sporting art was topped by Titian Ramsay Peale’s oil on canvas of a bob-white quail family, which earned $90,000. The sale was strong throughout and a full report will follow.