A John Blair Sr carved and painted mallard decoy shot past presale estimates at Guyette & Schmidt’s recent North American Decoys at Auction sale realizing a record price paid at auction for the carver at $214,000. The sale, April 28 and 29, which grossed an impressive $2.7 million, had some 36 decoys sell in excess of $10,000. The rare mallard hen decoy by the Philadelphia carverretained its near mint original paint and was in a swimming pose.Also sold was a nearly identically carved bird, except that it waspainted as a drake, that brought $103,500. The decoys,ex-collection of James McCleery, were sold by Guyette &Schmidt/Sotheby’s in 2000 at the McCleery sale for $112,500, and$60,250, respectively. Another of the top lots was a William Hart hooded merganser that sold for $203,000, establishing a record price not only for the carver, but also for any Canadian decoy ever sold at auction. A complete report of the auction will appear in a future issue. -DSS
10 May 2005 / 0 Comment
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