Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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6-C Maine Antique Digest, May 2015
- AUCTION -
Afew days before its winter auction on
February 12, Copley Fine Art Auc-
tions schlepped over 500 lots of sport-
ing art from snowy Boston to sunny Charles-
ton, South Carolina. The approximately
1000-mile trek was a shrewd marketing
move. The day following the sale, the mas-
sive Southeastern Wildlife Expo (SEWE)
opened in downtown Charleston for a three-
day showcase of art, exhibits, conservation
education, sporting demonstrations, and par-
ties. Copley’s merchandise (paintings, duck
calls, bronzes, hunting accessories, canes,
rods, reels, and decoys) nicely overlapped
the interests of SEWE’s 40,000 attendees.
Copley first piggybacked the Charles-
ton Expo in 2014. Previously its winter
sale had been held in New
York City during Americana
Week. SEWE was not the
only reason for relocating
south. “Many of our major
clients have homes in the
South,” said auction coordi-
nator Aimee Stashak-Moore.
“They did not want to return north for our
winter sale.” Charleston was also a familiar
place for Copley president Stephen “Steve”
B. O’Brien Jr. He was briefly a resident of
nearby Folly Beach in the 1990s.
The sale venue, the American Theater on
King Street, was ideal. The 1942 Art Mod-
erne movie theater perfectly fit the audience,
which numbered 65 at its peak. When it was
renovated in 2003, the American Theater
became an 8000-square-foot event space
that spurred revitalization in a neglected part
of Charleston’s downtown. Portable uphol-
stered seats replaced the fixed variety. Boxed
lunches substituted for popcorn in the lobby.
The sale was neatly divided into three sec-
tions: art (211 lots, 37%), carvings (204 lots,
36%), and other (149 lots, 26%). Twelve of
the sale’s top 20 were art; eight were carvings.
At the end of the day, the auction brought in
$1,844,637 (according to the prices realized
list on March 16). That includes the buyers’
premiums.
The lot that earned the highest amount
provided some of the sale’s highest drama.
It began when Quail—A Covey Rise, a
watercolor by avid huntsman and illustrator
Arthur Burdett Frost (1851-1928), opened at
$25,000. At least 11 phones were active. By
the $80,000 bid, the battle had come down
to two phone bidders, whose representatives
were seated next to each other. Bids jockeyed
back and forth. When it was bidder A’s turn,
the telephone connection was momentarily
broken. Scrambling ensued. In the interval,
an Internet bidder jumped in at $125,000.
With bidder A back online, the phone battle
continued. One of the phone-battling duo
won the Frost at $180,000 (including buyer’s
premium).
The next three highest lots were determined
within an hour of the Frost sale. Traveler, an
oil on board equestrian portrait by Sir Alfred
James Munnings (1878-1959) was commis-
sioned in 1924 by horse owner and outdoors-
woman Hilda Rice Ayer of Wenham, Massa-
chusetts. Traveler sold to a phone bidder for
$96,000. That was quickly
followed a few lots later by
The Pond Cover, an upland
bird shooting scene by Aiden
Lassell Ripley (1896-1969),
which opened at $55,000 and
sold quickly to a phone bid-
der for $90,000.
Perhaps the “people’s choice” painting
was the one that earned the third-highest
amount. Many stopped to examine Self Por-
trait with Three Setters. In this signed and
dated (1911) oil on canvas, Edmund Henry
Osthaus (1858-1928) pictured himself with
three eager setters. The dogs have their gaze
fixed on Osthaus, who is depicted cleaning
and oiling his double-barrel shotgun. After
a protracted battle between the phones and a
staunch on-site bidder, the painting went to a
phone bidder for $87,000.
There were 15 engravings after Audubon
in the sale. All were engraved, printed, and
hand-colored by Robert Havell Jr. (1793-
1878), a British-born printer who became
Audubon’s friend and associate. The top
lots were Snowy Owl (No. 25, Plate CXXI)
and Great White Heron (No. 57, Plate
CCLXXXI). Snowy Owl, which was chosen
for the catalog cover, opened at $45,000 and
sold to a phone bidder for $72,000. Great
White Heron opened at $24,000, and a phone
bidder captured it for $39,000.
After 211 paintings, the audience tran-
sitioned from art dealers and collectors to
decoy enthusiasts. Nineteenth-century wood
carvers replaced 19th-century painters as the
center of attention. The top carving, a hissing
brant by Nathan Cobb Jr. (1825-1905), graced
Copley Fine Art Auctions, Charleston, South Carolina
The Thrill of the Hunt at Copley’s Winter Sale
by Pete Prunkl
Photos courtesy Copley Fine Art Auctions
“They did not
want to return
north for our
winter sale.”
A. B. Frost (1851-1928) is perhaps best known for his illustrations for Tom Sawyer
and Uncle Remus. This 14" x 22" Quail—A Covey Rise by Frost was published by
Charles Scribner’s Sons as part of a chromolithographed set entitled “Shooting Pic-
tures.” The original watercolor was first purchased by Clarence Otis Bigelow, the
owner of what is today the oldest apothecary in the country, located in Greenwich
Village, New York City. At $180,000 (est. $40,000/60,000) this painting was the top
lot of the sale.
Copley’s head auc-
tioneer, Peter Cocco-
luto, is shown taking
bids on Great White
Heron, after John
James Audubon. The
26 1/8" x 39 1/8"
engraving is shown
on an easel and pro-
jected onto the screen.
Prunkl photo.
This print sold for $39,000 (est. $30,000/50,000).
Richard E. Coen of Charleston, South Caro-
lina, is a longtime decoy collector and client of
Steven O’Brien. Coen is shown holding a willet
carved by either Charles Sumner Bunn (1885-
1952) or William “Bill” Bowman (1824-1906).
Prunkl photo.
The willet decoy came from the collection
of Bud Ward, a founder of the Long Island
Decoy Collectors Association. It opened at
$12,000 and was chased by phone bidders
and “Rusty” Johnson of Memphis, Tennes-
see, bidding from the floor. Johnson, a decoy
collector since 1965, won the bird at $28,800
(est. $20,000/30,000).
Randy Tull (b. 1947) of Hayward, Wisconsin, carved
this life-size swimming wigeon in 1993. His son Shane
attended the sale and bought the wigeon for $4560 (est.
$400/600) and four more of his father’s decoys. On the
phone as each Tull decoy came up, Shane Tull was relent-
less; other phone bidders fell by the wayside. “My dad’s
hands are gone now from carpal tunnel syndrome,”
said Shane after the sale. Not shown, one Tull decoy got
away—a canvasback hen went to a phone bidder for
$1020 (est. $400/600).