Antiques and The Arts Weekly - August 8, 1997
Ten Times Ten Makes A Record: A Little Curlew Attracts Some Big Buyers at the Latest Guyette and Schmidt Sale
By Liza Montgomery
OGUNQUIT, ME. -Late in the evening of July 28, a tired Gary Guyette learned that one of his decoys, slated for sale the next day, would probably bring around $200,000.
"A Cape Cod collector asked me what I thought of it," he recalls, "and concluded he would pay a little more [$200,000]." Guyette didn't consider a world record until the preview the following morning, however, when he overheard audience members discussing its possibility.
The sculpturesque quality of the decoy -a circa 1880-90 running curlew with excellent patina and an unusually large 21 1/2 inch form -carried the piece across collecting barriers when it attracted the attention of folk art, fine art and decoy buyers from around the country, selling for an astonishing $335,500 (est $60/ 80,000).
The price broke a $319,000 record set 11 years ago by an Elmer Crowell pintail drake. A fine art collector from the greater New York City area was the curlew's buyer and most recent big spender in a dramatic July 29 contest, wonderfully orchestrated by James Julia, at Cliff House resort.
Initially involving nine participants (six on the phone and three in the audience), bidding stalled at $190,000, then narrowed to two buyers at the $250,000 mark. The underbidder was described by Guyette as a decoy collector form the Midwest.
The two-day auction, consisting of some 650 decoys and related items, totaled just under $1.2 million. Coming in second at $71,500 was a pair of circa 1920 mallards by Rowley Horner.
Despite "Extensive promotion" and the curlew's rarity, the Ogunquit record glaringly reflects recent activity by folk art collectors in the decoy market, with five of the bird's nine potential buyers hailing from that sector. Guyette also attributes David Shorsch's New York City exhibition of the decoy as folk art, held last fall, as a factor in the curlew's price.
"That exhibit, combined with our Hillman auctions, caught a few people's attention," he concluded. The right people, it seems.
"It's a fabulous bird - that's why we bought it," said Harvey Kahn, artist agent and curator of the private collection that will house the curlew. "I'm not a decoy collector, nor is my client. But this is not the traditional decoy. It's more stylized than the usual academic approach. It transcends folk art. This is what moved us."
Kahn's client, a longtime contemporary art collector, branched into folk sculpture several years ago and possesses a small but significant assemblage of decoys and shore birds.
The curlew's impeccable provenance was yet another of its attractive features. One of only three decoys made by an unknown Salem, Mass., carver, and the finest of its group despite a missing wax eye (the other two were described by Guyette as "quite rough"; one sold in 1993 for $24,000), the bird was part of the hunting rig of Dr John C. Phillips of Beverly, Mass., a well-known sportsman active in the first decades of the 1900s and author of Shooting Records of Wenham Lake, 1926-35.
The first of Phillips' guides was none other than Elmer Crowell, and the good doctor's rig also included what many consider to be the best Crowell decoy ever made: the aforementioned record pintail drake. Yet that decoy, according to Guyette, paled in form and appeal in comparison to the curlew. "So many people loved [the curlew]," he observed, "while most didn't care for the pintail."
The latest record-setter was among several inexpensive shore birds dumped from a bag onto Guyette's desk in 1987 by the son of Phillips' Wenham Lake guide, who also brought with him a Crowell black duck and a few Lincoln geese. The curlew sold to a Cape Cod collector for $33,500 then; its 1997 price was thus ten times that amount ten years later, an eerie coincidence for Guyette and a combination that may pay off for the auction firm in the future.
"Another great one [in the bag] sold for $16,500 to a Massachusetts collector, who has now given it to me to auction this fall," he added. "I expect it will make $68,000." The factor of ten times ten, however looms large in his cautious estimate.
Ten Times Ten Makes A Record: A Little Curlew Attracts Some Big Buyers at the Latest Guyette and Schmidt Sale
By Liza Montgomery
OGUNQUIT, ME. -Late in the evening of July 28, a tired Gary Guyette learned that one of his decoys, slated for sale the next day, would probably bring around $200,000.
"A Cape Cod collector asked me what I thought of it," he recalls, "and concluded he would pay a little more [$200,000]." Guyette didn't consider a world record until the preview the following morning, however, when he overheard audience members discussing its possibility.
The sculpturesque quality of the decoy -a circa 1880-90 running curlew with excellent patina and an unusually large 21 1/2 inch form -carried the piece across collecting barriers when it attracted the attention of folk art, fine art and decoy buyers from around the country, selling for an astonishing $335,500 (est $60/ 80,000).
The price broke a $319,000 record set 11 years ago by an Elmer Crowell pintail drake. A fine art collector from the greater New York City area was the curlew's buyer and most recent big spender in a dramatic July 29 contest, wonderfully orchestrated by James Julia, at Cliff House resort.
Initially involving nine participants (six on the phone and three in the audience), bidding stalled at $190,000, then narrowed to two buyers at the $250,000 mark. The underbidder was described by Guyette as a decoy collector form the Midwest.
The two-day auction, consisting of some 650 decoys and related items, totaled just under $1.2 million. Coming in second at $71,500 was a pair of circa 1920 mallards by Rowley Horner.
Despite "Extensive promotion" and the curlew's rarity, the Ogunquit record glaringly reflects recent activity by folk art collectors in the decoy market, with five of the bird's nine potential buyers hailing from that sector. Guyette also attributes David Shorsch's New York City exhibition of the decoy as folk art, held last fall, as a factor in the curlew's price.
"That exhibit, combined with our Hillman auctions, caught a few people's attention," he concluded. The right people, it seems.
"It's a fabulous bird - that's why we bought it," said Harvey Kahn, artist agent and curator of the private collection that will house the curlew. "I'm not a decoy collector, nor is my client. But this is not the traditional decoy. It's more stylized than the usual academic approach. It transcends folk art. This is what moved us."
Kahn's client, a longtime contemporary art collector, branched into folk sculpture several years ago and possesses a small but significant assemblage of decoys and shore birds.
The curlew's impeccable provenance was yet another of its attractive features. One of only three decoys made by an unknown Salem, Mass., carver, and the finest of its group despite a missing wax eye (the other two were described by Guyette as "quite rough"; one sold in 1993 for $24,000), the bird was part of the hunting rig of Dr John C. Phillips of Beverly, Mass., a well-known sportsman active in the first decades of the 1900s and author of Shooting Records of Wenham Lake, 1926-35.
The first of Phillips' guides was none other than Elmer Crowell, and the good doctor's rig also included what many consider to be the best Crowell decoy ever made: the aforementioned record pintail drake. Yet that decoy, according to Guyette, paled in form and appeal in comparison to the curlew. "So many people loved [the curlew]," he observed, "while most didn't care for the pintail."
The latest record-setter was among several inexpensive shore birds dumped from a bag onto Guyette's desk in 1987 by the son of Phillips' Wenham Lake guide, who also brought with him a Crowell black duck and a few Lincoln geese. The curlew sold to a Cape Cod collector for $33,500 then; its 1997 price was thus ten times that amount ten years later, an eerie coincidence for Guyette and a combination that may pay off for the auction firm in the future.
"Another great one [in the bag] sold for $16,500 to a Massachusetts collector, who has now given it to me to auction this fall," he added. "I expect it will make $68,000." The factor of ten times ten, however looms large in his cautious estimate.
