Maine Antiques Digest - January 2000
McCleery Decoys the Best of the Best
By Jackson Parker
In the 36 years of waterfowl decoy auctions since auctioneer Richard Bourne first tested the market in 1965, there has never been a decoy auction as big as that of the considerable collection of Dr. James M. McCleery of Texas, jointly run by Sotheby's and Guyette & Schmidt in New York City on the weekend of January 22 and 23, 2000. Although the sale was conservatively estimated at $5/6 million, it made just under $11 million. For the record, 612 lots sold for $10,965,930. Subtracting 49 lots unrelated to waterfowl, which included baskets, rugs, fish decoys, traps, eel spears, etc., 563 lots sold for $10,817,746, an unbelievable average of $19,214 per decoy lot.
The McCleery auction gross is four times that of the highest decoy auction gross to date, the $2,708,825 brought by the Hillman collection in 1996, and one-and-a-half times higher than the best decoy YEAR (1986, which grossed $7,166,938). Before the McCleery auction, the record for a decoy at auction was $335,500, paid by a folk art collector for a running curlew at a Guyette-Schmidt auction in Ogunquit, Maine, in July 1997. This record was broken by not one but by four lots at the McCleery auction, with the top lot, the Crowell preening Canada goose, selling for $684,500 (includes buyer's premium), more than double the previous record. In all the years before the McCleery auction, 16 decoy lots had sold for over $100,000 each. At the McCleery auction 16 lots sold for six figures each. There were 62 new auction records for decoy makers. In the past ten years, there have never been more than 40 in one entire year.
What made this collection so great that it caused what some called a bloodbath and others, a feeding frenzy? It was Jim McCleery's astute analysis of what made a decoy a classic and his willingness to pay top dollar to add it to his collection. At Richard Bourne's sales in Hyannis in the early 1970s, McCleery in his wheelchair followed the bidding, and, smiling, snapped up the Dilleys when most collectors didn't know what the hell they were. He understood value and took the market where no bidder had gone before. Jim was the pacemaker. Even in later years when he could no longer attend the auctions and bid by phone, his presence was felt in the auction room when the bidding would go way past the estimate, and the insiders would lip-sync "McCleery" to each other. When a decoy would enter his collection, it automatically had the McCleery seal of approval, and that's why the decoy auction market took a quantum leap upward that memorable weekend of the McCleery sale.
Contributing to the McCleery mystique were two publications, Call to the Sky and the Sotheby's/Guyette & Schmidt auction catalog. Call to the Sky: The Decoy Collection of James M. McCleery, M.D. covers the best of the collection, assembled for public exhibit for the first time at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from September 17, 1992, to January 10, 1993. This small book had a big impact because of the excellent photographs and the expert analysis of Bob Shaw, who wrote the introduction and catalog that put everything in perspective and whetted the collecting appetite of the reader. The auction catalog was impressive, not just for the design or having all the objects in color, but for the provenance, tracing the ownership history of the decoys. Picturing the Crowell preening Canada goose on the cover of both publications certainly helped it achieve its record price.
The auction's top lot at $684,500, more than double the previous record for any decoy, was the splendid circa 1917 preening Canada goose by A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) of East Harwich on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It turned up at Skinner's fall 1983 Americana auction where it was bought for $48,400 by auctioneer Richard Oliver and sold by him to Jim McCleery for a reputed $75,000. At the McCleery sale it was bought for a California collection by Stephen O'Brien Jr., who outbid, would you believe, Richard Oliver.
When Jim McCleery bought the ruddy turnstone by Lothrop Holmes (1824-1899) of Kingston, Massachusetts, out of the Bourne 1986 auction of the Starr collection for $67,000, it became the highest-priced shorebird at auction until it was topped by a Bowman lowhead curlew at $90,500 in 1994. At the McCleery sale once again it was in first place for a shorebird, having been sold for $470,000, the second-highest price ever paid for a decoy at auction.
When Jim McCleery bought the Bowman long-billed curlew from the Bourne auction of the Mackey collection in 1973, it shook up the market because that was the first time a decoy had sold for figures. Old-timers moaned, "He'll never get it back!" At the McCleery sale it sold to a New Jersey collector for $464,500, the third-highest price ever for a decoy at auction.
Another Bowman that scored high was the lesser yellowlegs that went to a Texas collector at $244,500. It is the same bird that sold Doyle's fall 1981 auction for $25,300, the first time a decoy passed the $25,000 mark.
There was one decoy in the Mackey collection never came to the 1973-4 auctions, and Jim lusted after that bird. It was the ultimate Mason factory decoy, the Premier-grade wood duck that he finally bought from the Mackey family, reportedly for $350,000, shortly before he died. It sold here for $354,500, the fourth-highest price ever paid for a decoy at auction.
At the preview, two Canada geese were displayed side by side on the same pedestal-the Crowell preener and the so-called mortised goose-signifying parity in the minds of the auctioneers. Among the cognoscenti, the mortised goose was the better of the two. There are three such geese; two were offered at a Christie's auction some years ago with McCleery buying one for $13,500 and the other going to a Connecticut collector at $11,000. When McCleery's was offered, many thought it would fetch more than the Crowell but that didn't happen. It went for $233,500 to a discerning Louisianan collector. Was it confusion about its origin? Found near the Susquehanna River, it was later determined to be a Massachusetts bird on the basis of its construction.
This auction was full of surprises. Gary Guyette admitted the first surprise was that there was that much money out there for decoys. The second was the crowd in attendance, as big as the biggest Sotheby's auctions for other popular categories. Although there were 704 registered bidders in the auction room plus 228 phone bidders and absentee bidders, there were only 145 successful bidders, but some were dealers
buying for more than one client. Nancy Druckman said there were folk art collectors and collectors of Impressionist paintings bidding as well. Trouble was, they were often wiped out by the more knowledgeable decoy people. One art collector came to the preview and left absentee bids at the high estimate for a number of decoys and got nothing. Another surprise was the return to the market of the heavy hitters who had bought nothing for years. The seminar that preceded the auction was over-subscribed. The print order of 11,000 catalogs is gone.
The fear was that if collectors die or drop out and no new collectors are added, decoy values will drop, and investments will go down the drain. Well, the McCleery auction brought back who had dropped out and showed every sign of making the folk art people aware and interested in decoys. Only time will tell if the decoy market holds or folds or rises again.
McCleery Decoys the Best of the Best
By Jackson Parker
In the 36 years of waterfowl decoy auctions since auctioneer Richard Bourne first tested the market in 1965, there has never been a decoy auction as big as that of the considerable collection of Dr. James M. McCleery of Texas, jointly run by Sotheby's and Guyette & Schmidt in New York City on the weekend of January 22 and 23, 2000. Although the sale was conservatively estimated at $5/6 million, it made just under $11 million. For the record, 612 lots sold for $10,965,930. Subtracting 49 lots unrelated to waterfowl, which included baskets, rugs, fish decoys, traps, eel spears, etc., 563 lots sold for $10,817,746, an unbelievable average of $19,214 per decoy lot.
The McCleery auction gross is four times that of the highest decoy auction gross to date, the $2,708,825 brought by the Hillman collection in 1996, and one-and-a-half times higher than the best decoy YEAR (1986, which grossed $7,166,938). Before the McCleery auction, the record for a decoy at auction was $335,500, paid by a folk art collector for a running curlew at a Guyette-Schmidt auction in Ogunquit, Maine, in July 1997. This record was broken by not one but by four lots at the McCleery auction, with the top lot, the Crowell preening Canada goose, selling for $684,500 (includes buyer's premium), more than double the previous record. In all the years before the McCleery auction, 16 decoy lots had sold for over $100,000 each. At the McCleery auction 16 lots sold for six figures each. There were 62 new auction records for decoy makers. In the past ten years, there have never been more than 40 in one entire year.
What made this collection so great that it caused what some called a bloodbath and others, a feeding frenzy? It was Jim McCleery's astute analysis of what made a decoy a classic and his willingness to pay top dollar to add it to his collection. At Richard Bourne's sales in Hyannis in the early 1970s, McCleery in his wheelchair followed the bidding, and, smiling, snapped up the Dilleys when most collectors didn't know what the hell they were. He understood value and took the market where no bidder had gone before. Jim was the pacemaker. Even in later years when he could no longer attend the auctions and bid by phone, his presence was felt in the auction room when the bidding would go way past the estimate, and the insiders would lip-sync "McCleery" to each other. When a decoy would enter his collection, it automatically had the McCleery seal of approval, and that's why the decoy auction market took a quantum leap upward that memorable weekend of the McCleery sale.
Contributing to the McCleery mystique were two publications, Call to the Sky and the Sotheby's/Guyette & Schmidt auction catalog. Call to the Sky: The Decoy Collection of James M. McCleery, M.D. covers the best of the collection, assembled for public exhibit for the first time at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from September 17, 1992, to January 10, 1993. This small book had a big impact because of the excellent photographs and the expert analysis of Bob Shaw, who wrote the introduction and catalog that put everything in perspective and whetted the collecting appetite of the reader. The auction catalog was impressive, not just for the design or having all the objects in color, but for the provenance, tracing the ownership history of the decoys. Picturing the Crowell preening Canada goose on the cover of both publications certainly helped it achieve its record price.
The auction's top lot at $684,500, more than double the previous record for any decoy, was the splendid circa 1917 preening Canada goose by A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) of East Harwich on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It turned up at Skinner's fall 1983 Americana auction where it was bought for $48,400 by auctioneer Richard Oliver and sold by him to Jim McCleery for a reputed $75,000. At the McCleery sale it was bought for a California collection by Stephen O'Brien Jr., who outbid, would you believe, Richard Oliver.
When Jim McCleery bought the ruddy turnstone by Lothrop Holmes (1824-1899) of Kingston, Massachusetts, out of the Bourne 1986 auction of the Starr collection for $67,000, it became the highest-priced shorebird at auction until it was topped by a Bowman lowhead curlew at $90,500 in 1994. At the McCleery sale once again it was in first place for a shorebird, having been sold for $470,000, the second-highest price ever paid for a decoy at auction.
When Jim McCleery bought the Bowman long-billed curlew from the Bourne auction of the Mackey collection in 1973, it shook up the market because that was the first time a decoy had sold for figures. Old-timers moaned, "He'll never get it back!" At the McCleery sale it sold to a New Jersey collector for $464,500, the third-highest price ever for a decoy at auction.
Another Bowman that scored high was the lesser yellowlegs that went to a Texas collector at $244,500. It is the same bird that sold Doyle's fall 1981 auction for $25,300, the first time a decoy passed the $25,000 mark.
There was one decoy in the Mackey collection never came to the 1973-4 auctions, and Jim lusted after that bird. It was the ultimate Mason factory decoy, the Premier-grade wood duck that he finally bought from the Mackey family, reportedly for $350,000, shortly before he died. It sold here for $354,500, the fourth-highest price ever paid for a decoy at auction.
At the preview, two Canada geese were displayed side by side on the same pedestal-the Crowell preener and the so-called mortised goose-signifying parity in the minds of the auctioneers. Among the cognoscenti, the mortised goose was the better of the two. There are three such geese; two were offered at a Christie's auction some years ago with McCleery buying one for $13,500 and the other going to a Connecticut collector at $11,000. When McCleery's was offered, many thought it would fetch more than the Crowell but that didn't happen. It went for $233,500 to a discerning Louisianan collector. Was it confusion about its origin? Found near the Susquehanna River, it was later determined to be a Massachusetts bird on the basis of its construction.
This auction was full of surprises. Gary Guyette admitted the first surprise was that there was that much money out there for decoys. The second was the crowd in attendance, as big as the biggest Sotheby's auctions for other popular categories. Although there were 704 registered bidders in the auction room plus 228 phone bidders and absentee bidders, there were only 145 successful bidders, but some were dealers
buying for more than one client. Nancy Druckman said there were folk art collectors and collectors of Impressionist paintings bidding as well. Trouble was, they were often wiped out by the more knowledgeable decoy people. One art collector came to the preview and left absentee bids at the high estimate for a number of decoys and got nothing. Another surprise was the return to the market of the heavy hitters who had bought nothing for years. The seminar that preceded the auction was over-subscribed. The print order of 11,000 catalogs is gone.
The fear was that if collectors die or drop out and no new collectors are added, decoy values will drop, and investments will go down the drain. Well, the McCleery auction brought back who had dropped out and showed every sign of making the folk art people aware and interested in decoys. Only time will tell if the decoy market holds or folds or rises again.
