This vibrantly colored Joseph W. Lincoln (Accord, Mass., 1859-1938) wood duck drake with extended crest, 15½ inches long, achieved the sale-high price of $216,000 ($175/225,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
SAINT MICHAELS, MD. — On July 25-26, Guyette & Deeter conducted Decoys and Sporting Art at Auction, a 542-lot sale primarily featuring the Ted and Judy Harmon collection of Massachusetts decoys and the Peter and Diana Bennett collection of early Mason decoys. In addition to these featured selections, items from the collections of Dan Graf, Chris Pitman, Tom Karras, Gene and Linda Kangas, Mike and Ginger Raffia and Len Carnaghi were offered.
Owner Jon Deeter noted that the sale total was around $4.1 million with several world records broken and a 97 percent sell-through rate.
Additionally, Deeter shared that both featured collections were in their second session, and both saw strong results across the board. “The decoy market has done better than any collecting segment in the last five to seven decades, and it shows its strength again through this sale. We have been selling some of the most important collections ever put together in the last few years, Russ Goldberger, Alan Haid and the Harmons, who owned their own auction company. It was an honor to be selected by a family in the business, trusted to sell their collection. We reach deep into the collector market and business is strong.”
Fredrick Melville Nichols (Lynn, Mass., 1854-1924) made this 16-inch-long curlew with glass bead eyes, deep relief wing carving and raised wing tips; it brought $210,000 ($80/120,000).
Cataloged as “exceedingly rare,” it was no surprise to decoy afficionados that a Joseph W. Lincoln (Accord, Mass., 1859-1938) wood duck drake with extended crest achieved that auction’s highest price — $216,000. Estimated to finish between $175,000 and $225,000, this drake, which was from the Harmon collection, was exceptional for several reasons: it was never rigged or weighted, it was painted identical to Lincoln’s miniature wood ducks and it is one of just three full-size wood ducks by Lincoln in original paint.
The next two highest prices, sold subsequently and finishing in order, were also from the Harmon collection. At $210,000 was a curlew by Fredrick Melville Nichols, which Guyette & Deeter cataloged as “outstanding and exceedingly rare.” This example, one of only two known, had deep relief wing carving, raised wing tops, glass bead eyes and an inserted metal sleeve in the stick hole, which was typical of the maker. The third-highest price, $192,000, was achieved by a sleeping black duck by A. Elmer Crowell. This early example depicted the duck with its head turned as if its bill was buried within its back feathers and it had deep relief carved crossed wingtips and relief tail feather carving. Like other examples from the hunting rig of Walter Howard Mayo, this one was slightly oversized with chip carving under tail.
Other Crowell decoys put up strong results, with an early preening black duck achieving $93,000 and a dropped wing dowitcher from the Harmon collection bringing $90,000. The dowitcher was pictured in the Peoria Riverfront Museum exhibition book for “American Decoy: The Invention.”
A. Elmer Crowell’s (East Harwich, Mass., 1862-1951) early preening black duck, 16½ inches long, rested for $93,000 ($20/30,000).
According to the Guyette & Deeter website, the Plymouth, Mass.-based Bennett collection “contains the most outstanding selection of early hand-made, challenge grade Mason decoys ever assembled.” Leading the items from their collection and setting a world record was a rigmate pair of buffleheads, which sold for $174,000, more than three times their high estimate. Deeter shared “That was the most a pair of Mason buffleheads have ever sold for — not the most any Mason decoy has sold for, but the most for that type. In all, the whole Bennett group did really well.” Those buffleheads, cataloged as “very rare and important” were in original paint with very minor wear and had additional provenance to the Dr James McCleery collection and were featured in several publications.
A decorative standing Canada goose by the Ward Brothers, made around the same time as the famed Bishops Head Gun Club geese and with matching details, such as the carved head, paint and hump under its tail, achieved $144,000. This goose had relief wing carving with applied peach basket stave wingtips and its head was turned 45 degrees. Pictured in two publications, this rare figure was signed “Ward’s Decoys Crisfield, Maryland” underneath its tail.
Outside of the highest-priced lots, several world records toppled. Folk artist and carver Frank Finney was represented by 14 lots in the sale, ranging in price from $600 for a 4¾-inch-long figure of a black headed grosbeak, to the new record of $60,000, set by a whimsical carved bullfrog and turtle. This group, which showed the bullfrog sitting atop the turtle, reading a “Pond Gazette” newspaper with headlines about jewelry heist suspects on the run. Suspiciously, the bullfrog was also carrying a bag of loot. The 25-inch-long turtle’s shell was hinged and it opened to a storage compartment inside.
Setting a world record for the maker was Frank Finney’s (Cape Charles, Va., b 1947) full-size bullfrog riding on a turtle, 25 inches long by 14 inches high; it achieved $60,000 against a $12/18,000 estimate.
Contemporary carver Josh Brewer’s record was set for a hollow carved swordfish with applied mahogany fins, silicon bronze hardware and on a hardwood base with a harpoon. Signed and dated “2025” to the underside of the base, the swordfish was struck down for $16,800. Brewer also had a hollow carved brant decoy in this sale, and that was bid to $4,500. Deeter told us that Brewer “has a neat story: he grew up carving and loved it, but he thought it wasn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He stopped carving, went on to medical school and became a doctor, only to eventually leave his practice and return to carving.”
While Hector “Heck” Whittington’s overall record is higher, the $13,200 earned by a sleeping mallard was the highest price achieved for any Whittington mallard. Cataloged as “early and outstanding,” this sleeping duck was hollow carved with comb feather paint detail and an inserted copper tail sprig. To the underside, the maker’s name, “1947” and a presumed title, “Sleepy Joe,” were painted.
Another record fell for Rhode Island landscape painter George William Whitaker. Whitaker’s oil on board view of the West Island Club off Sakonnet Point, in Little Compton, R.I., sold to a museum in Rhode Island for the artist’s new high price of $9,000.
A world record for George William Whitaker (1840-1916) was set by his 1996 oil on board painting of the West Island Club off Sakonnet Point, in Little Compton, R.I. It measured 17½ by 28½ inches and sold to a Rhode Island museum for $9,000 ($3,5/4,500).
“We got exceptional results for all of the horse carvings by Calvin Kinstler. They really went crazy. We had them estimated at $400 to $900 each, and they all ended up selling much better. Truthfully, I just missed that market. Most of the people we had bidding on them had numerous Kinstler carvings but said they had never seen them go so high.” The high price in this sale was $8,400, achieved by two separate carvings: a hunter horse and a trotting Belgian stallion. Both were signed to the side of their bases, and the hunter horse had a sticker from Abercrombie & Fitch, New York on its underside. Three other Kinstler horses were in the sale, with the lowest price still reaching $4,500. There was also a 12-inch-long carved model of a bull, which topped off at $3,600.
The final world record set in the auction was earned by a copper panfish decoy by Charles Slechta. Cataloged as “very rare and possibly unique,” this two-piece hollow body fish had crosshatch decoration on spotty sides and two-tone metal eyes. Three other Slechta copper fish were included in the sale, with prices ranging from $840 to $1,200, all with estimates from $1,000 to $1,500.
Deeter closed, “Overall, the auction was a great success, grossing over estimate and setting new high-water marks for many carvers and artists.”
Guyette & Deeter’s next auction will be held during the Easton Waterfowl Festival, November 15-16, at the Country School in Easton, Md.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.guyetteanddeeter.com or 410-745-0485.
