Guyette and Schmidt, Inc Antique Decoy Auction Firm

According to experts, it's not only a duck; it's one of the rarest and now the most valuable of waterfowl decoys in North America, and it was made more than a century ago by a simple cemetery caretaker in Kingston.

Lothrop Holmes, of Kingston (1824-1899), was a hardworking man with an incredible artistic talent and a love of duck hunting. He masterfully sculpted a limited collection of shorebird decoys that are fiercely sought today by high-end collectors who appreciate their folk art and sculptural qualities, as well as their rarity. Fortunately for them, Holmes branded his decoys because he often hunted with friends and didn't want his decoys to get mixed in with theirs when it came time to return home.

Holmes undoubtedly would have been astounded had he any idea that the fruits of his hobby would one day command six-figure prices and create bidding wars among collectors vying to own one of his masterpieces. Last Friday, Jan. 19, a red-breasted merganser carved by Holmes set a world sales record for decoys when Christie's Auction House of New York, in association with Guyette & Schmidt of Maryland and Maine, auctioned it for a whopping $856,000, including the buyer's premium to the auction house.

Gary Guyette of Guyette & Schmidt, which is the world's largest antique decoy auction firm, scheduled this auction to coincide with the Americana Antiques Week in New York City. Guyette & Schmidt holds three major auctions per year, and decided to team with Christie's to sell its latest collection of consigned fine decoys due to the opportunity for increased exposure.

"We'd worked with Christie's before, and even though we would make less money selling through them, we thought this collection might to better in a folk art setting," Guyette said. "We wanted to sell the merganser and hopefully break a record. I'd have been happier if it made a million because that would have been a milestone, and there are people out there who won't look at anything under $1 million. But most decoys - the vast majority - are worth less than $1,000."

Guyette said what separates a $40 flea market decoy from a desirable $400,000 antique is the maker, condition and species of the piece.

"Provenance had a big effect here," he said. "Besides it being an exceptional example of his work, it also had exceptional provenance."

The merganser was owned for many years by Adele Ernest, a pioneer folk art collector and one of the founders of the American Folk Art Museum, who featured it in her 1960s book The Art of the Decoy. She sold it in 1976 for $6,000 (a great sum for such a little-known collectible then) to a California couple. When they passed away, Guyette & Schmidt sold their collection, save the merganser, which a descendant held onto until now. It was conservatively estimated to bring between $400,000 and $600,000 prior to the auction. One of only six mergansers known to have been carved by Holmes, its next-of-kin sold privately in New York last year for $500,000. Guyette said that example was undervalued, as it was in near-perfect condition while its recently sold mate had a repair to its bill.

"While Holmes is known to have made other species of duck decoys, such as goldeneye and oldsquaw, his mergansers are held in the highest regard among collectors," he said.

In 2000, Guyette & Schmidt sold a Holmes-carved ruddy turnstone - a Florida shorebird - for $470,000. But until this month, the world-record was $801,000, paid in 2000 for an Elmer Crowell decoy at Christie's. Crowell, an East Harwich 20th-century decoy carver, is regarded as the most famous old-time decoy carver from the United States.

"The top four decoys ever sold by auction were by Elmer Crowell," Guyette said. One commanded $684,000 in 2000; another brought $300,000 in 1993.

The difference between these two masters of the field is that Crowell was far more prolific than Holmes; thus Holmes decoys are scarcer.

"Lothrop Holmes was not a commercial carver," Guyette said. "He did it for himself, and all of his pieces were working decoys. He may have carved 60, whereas Elmer Crowell carved thousands. Fewer Holmes decoys survived, and almost all of his predate Crowell's earlier ones, which are the most sought."

So who can afford these newly appreciated works of art? Most of the serious collectors (read: wealthy) are the movers and shakers of the nation, well known to readers of Forbes and Worth magazines. A collector in Memphis, who is reputed to be the world's largest cotton merchant, bought the Holmes merganser. The CEO of a famous major fashion house purchased the other last year. Guyette says an article in Forbes sparked an uber-wealthy version of keeping up with the Joneses, making owning the finest examples a status symbol among many elite.

"They don't want the $1,000 ones, the $5,000 ones or the $10,000 ones; they want the $30,000 ones and will pay $130,000 to get them," Guyette said. He added that the decoys' artistry also appeals to many collectors' sensibilities. "The collector who's doing it really likes the product. These are mostly people who display them and are proud of them as works of art. They're enamored with the decoys' quintessential American forms and sculptural qualities."

While the field of decoy collecting is growing steadily, it is still enjoyed by a relative few, and virtually all are North American. Guyette says as a comparison there are more than 300,000 doll collectors in this country, while his specialty company has a mailing list that features just 11,300 antique decoy collectors in the United States and Canada. Of course, that's just fine with those who are intent on bagging the next extraordinary decoy rarity.

Most of the firm's consignments come from private collections, although Guyette and his partner are always on the lookout for unusual finds. In fact, he says, they always attend the annual Duxbury Antiques Show "because so many people still have old decoys in their attics and on their mantles there. We go to the show and do appraisals, and have gotten $50,000 and $60,000 ones out of that, and a few in the $5,000-to-$10,000 range… The average price we see is $5,000 to $6,000, but we do sell $500,000 pieces."

The Jan. 19 auction, which was a specialty auction held within a two-day general Americana auction, grossed $2,333,000. The haul was actually rather small for Guyette & Schmidt, according to Guyette, who said his company's previous two auctions garnered $4.5 and $3.5 million respectively.