Guyette and Schmidt, Inc Antique Decoy Auction Firm

Waterfowl decoys, long ago used by Native Americans who made them of reeds to lure ducks and geese into their nets, now trap much richer fare: Decoys attract about $12 million from collectors at auctions each year.

The leading auction house for decoys, Guyette & Schmidt Inc., is moving its headquarters to St. Michaels on Maryland's Eastern Shore from Farmington, Maine, this month.

The owners of the auction company, which sells $10 million worth of the decoys a year, said they were drawn by a warmer climate and lower taxes, but also the state's premier role in the craft. The state is home to the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum and the Ward Museum of Waterfowl Art in Salisbury, named for decoy-artisan brothers Lem and Steve Ward. The Waterfowl Festival in Easton each fall draws about 20,000 visitors, many of them looking for pieces to adorn mantels or coffee tables. And hundreds of Guyette & Schmidt's customers live in Maryland.

"Maryland is in the heart of everything," said Gary Guyette, co- owner of the auction house. "We can promote the whole decoying experience as opposed to just our business."

Decoy collecting was a much smaller niche when Guyette and his wife, Dale, brought back some of the wood carvings from Nova Scotia to sell in their antiques store about 30 years ago. The decoys quickly sold for under $20. Over the next decade, the decoy trade supplanted the original business.

By 1983, the couple was dealing solely in decoys and opened the Guyette & Schmidt auction house. Partner Frank Schmidt joined the company in 1991.

Today, their average decoy sells for $2,400, Guyette said. The most coveted Guyette has sold brought more than $800,000.

Hundreds of artists carve decoys today, ranging from commissioned, detailed works that take weeks to make, to copies that sell for decidedly less. A rare species or pose will fetch a high price.

"One that has its head out like a swimmer is more unusual, so it's usually worth more," Guyette said.

Some collectors are sportsmen who actually use the decoys when hunting. Others buy them strictly as art. Many of the original carvers had no artistic training and plied their trade on the side. Auctions by renowned houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's have raised the profile of decoys as collectors items.

"After the hunting market was over, a lot of men who made decoys began doing the same for sport hunting," said Sam Dyke, consulting curator for the Ward Museum. "People came back from World War I and it became more of a pastime. The demand for decoys continued."

Guyette will close the Maine shop, about 40 miles northwest of Augusta, on Tuesday. He bought a farm on the water in St. Michaels for the new headquarters, where his company will catalog, photograph and display the decoys. The partners also plan to open a gallery in the spring on U.S. 50 in Easton. Two of three employees are coming with them.

They'll continue to hold three auctions a year in St. Charles, Ill.; Boston and in Easton. They also make about $1.5 million annually from Internet and book sales.

"Decoys are the art of reduction. These aren't people trying to re-create what a duck looks like. What they're trying to do is create an object that looks like a duck 100 miles away," said Joe Engers, editor and publisher of Decoy Magazine.