Chicago Sun Times - May 2, 2007
Decoys the Real Thing By Dale Bowman
The second-greatest decoy auction in history last week suggests nobody really knows the ceiling for collectible decoys. Or if there is a ceiling.
Guyette & Schmidt Inc.'s annual spring decoy auction grossed $5,021,131 on Thursday and Friday at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles. It was the 22nd year it was held in conjunction with the National Antique Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show. That gross, the best at the spring auction, was second only to the January 2000 auction of the Dr. James McCleery collection, a joint effort between Guyette & Schmidt and Sotheby's that grossed about $11 million.
And this might just hint about what is coming. ''Oh, it is just starting,'' said Gary Guyette, the president of Guyette and Schmidt. ''It has been undervalued.''
The auction gave perfect examples. Eleven decoys sold for more than $100,000. A William Bowman (no relation) curlew sold for $313,000. At the McCleery auction, it had sold for a mere $87,500. A feeding plover by Elmer Crowell went for $291,000. In 1986, it sold for $55,000.
''There was such a small group buying decoys, it doesn't take much to expand the market,'' Guyette said. The decoy market is expanding quickly beyond hunting-related collectors into both the arts field and those who collect for the value. As an example of that expansion, Guyette noted that the Jack Nicklaus-designed Spring Creek Ranch golf course east of Memphis, Tenn., is adding a museum room of decoys. ''I don't know if [the market] will keep going up as fast as it has been,'' Guyette said. ''But the supply is definitely there. Publicity brings it out if you have a couple of $30,000 items sitting on the shelf [for example].''
A world auction record for an Illinois River decoy was set when a sleeping mallard hen by Charles Perdew sold for $252,000, much higher than expected.
Decoys the Real Thing By Dale Bowman
The second-greatest decoy auction in history last week suggests nobody really knows the ceiling for collectible decoys. Or if there is a ceiling.
Guyette & Schmidt Inc.'s annual spring decoy auction grossed $5,021,131 on Thursday and Friday at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles. It was the 22nd year it was held in conjunction with the National Antique Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show. That gross, the best at the spring auction, was second only to the January 2000 auction of the Dr. James McCleery collection, a joint effort between Guyette & Schmidt and Sotheby's that grossed about $11 million.
And this might just hint about what is coming. ''Oh, it is just starting,'' said Gary Guyette, the president of Guyette and Schmidt. ''It has been undervalued.''
The auction gave perfect examples. Eleven decoys sold for more than $100,000. A William Bowman (no relation) curlew sold for $313,000. At the McCleery auction, it had sold for a mere $87,500. A feeding plover by Elmer Crowell went for $291,000. In 1986, it sold for $55,000.
''There was such a small group buying decoys, it doesn't take much to expand the market,'' Guyette said. The decoy market is expanding quickly beyond hunting-related collectors into both the arts field and those who collect for the value. As an example of that expansion, Guyette noted that the Jack Nicklaus-designed Spring Creek Ranch golf course east of Memphis, Tenn., is adding a museum room of decoys. ''I don't know if [the market] will keep going up as fast as it has been,'' Guyette said. ''But the supply is definitely there. Publicity brings it out if you have a couple of $30,000 items sitting on the shelf [for example].''
A world auction record for an Illinois River decoy was set when a sleeping mallard hen by Charles Perdew sold for $252,000, much higher than expected.
