Maine Antique Digest May 2015

119 / 245

Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 7-C
- AUCTION -
the cover of Decoy Magazine in 1990 and
the July 2005 cover of the Guyette &
Schmidt auction catalog. Nathan Cobb
Sr. first settled Cobb Island, Virginia, in
the mid-19th century. The island became
a bird hunter’s paradise along the state’s
Eastern Shore. The hissing brant was
marked with an “E.B. COBB” brand and
was believed to be part of Elkanah B.
Cobb’s gunning rig. Elkanah was Nathan
Cobb Jr.’s son and a famed island guide.
Cobb’s brant sold to an absentee bidder
for $81,000.
A lifelike curlew by A. Elmer Crowell
(1862-1952) of East Harwich, Massachu-
setts, was the sale’s second-highest decoy
lot. In the third quarter of the 19th cen-
tury, Boston hunters came to Cape Cod
looking for outdoor recreation. Using live
ducks as decoys, A. Elmer Crowell made
a living as an island guide. That changed
in 1916 when market gunning, night
hunting, live decoys, and baiting were
banned. To survive, Crowell turned to
carving wild birds. The curlew he carved
circa 1930 opened at $32,500, and only
phone bidders joined the race. It sold for
$63,000.
George Boyd (1873-1941) carved a red-
breasted merganser drake that had been in
a private collection since 1960. Boyd, a
lifelong resident of Seabrook, New Hamp-
shire, carved the drake circa 1910, a time
when he was a part-time carver and full-
time shoemaker. For his decoys, Boyd pre-
ferred elderwood that came mostly from
old telephone poles. Four lots of miniatures
(six birds in total) by Boyd, circa 1920, pre-
ceded the drake. A phone bidder won the
drake for $54,000.
Bamboo fly rods dominated the 149 lots
in the “other” category. Of the 20 bamboo
rod lots, intricate masterpieces created by
E. Everett Garrison (1893-1976) led the
pack. Garrison, an Ossining, New York,
engineer, began handcrafting bamboo
rods in 1932. He devised a unique serial
number for each rod he made. The top
bamboo rod was Garrison’s model 204, a
7½' rod with two pieces and two tips and
serial number Q765. The Q designated the
year, in this case 1948. It sold for $6900
on a $300/600 estimate.
The bamboo rod that earned the sec-
ond-highest dollar amount was made by
Harold S. “Pinky” Gillum (1896-1966)
of Ridgefield, Connecticut. That 8'6"
trout rod with two pieces, two tips, and
serial number 1945 sold for $5100 on an
$800/1200 estimate.
Copley’s head auctioneer, Peter Cocco-
luto, called the sale for at least eight hours.
He stood at the podium the entire time. His
patter was direct, intense, and personable.
Coccoluto talked so fast that one marveled
at how his brain coordinated his voice,
eyes, hands, and spinal column.
Of the 359 transactions that I moni-
tored, 140 (about 39%) went to phone
bidders. Internet and onsite bidders each
accounted for around 23%. Absentee bid-
ders, who often supplied the opening bid,
had 16% of sales.
Copley Fine Art Auctions will hold a
July 2015 sale in Plymouth, Massachu-
setts. For more information, call (617)
This red-breasted merganser drake was one of the top decoys of the
sale. Carved circa 1910 by George Boyd (1873-1941) and kept in a
private collection since 1960, the 19" long drake sold for $54,000
(est. $60,000/90,000) to a phone bidder.
Frederick and
Hilda Rice Ayer of
Wenham, Massa-
chusetts, commis-
sioned Sir Alfred
James Munnings
to paint this 20"
x 24" oil on board
portrait of their
horse, Traveler, in
1924. Aphone bid-
der paid $96,000
for Traveler (est.
$80,000/120,000)
and $26,400 (est.
$18,000/24,000)
for the preceding
lot (not shown), a
1941 watercolor
by Aiden Las-
sell Ripley, Fox
Hunting.
Joe Engers, longtime editor and publisher of Decoy Magazine, took
home at least four decoys. This circa 1920 brant by Ira D. Hud-
son (1873-1949) with original paint and minor flaking and gunning
wear cost him $3300 (est. $4000/6000).
The catalog called the painting on this ruddy
turnstone “stylized exaggeration.” Its carver was
Daniel Lake Leeds (1852-1922) of Pleasantville,
New Jersey. In original paint with light gunning
wear, this turnstone went to a phone bidder for
$33,000 (est. $25,000/35,000).
Laura Grantham of Abingdon, Virginia, is a fox hunter
and fisherperson. She and her husband, Jerry, were in
town for the SEWE gathering and to visit her mother. She
is shown checking out an aquatint and etching by William
J. Schaldach (1896-1982). The pair sold to an on-site bid-
der for $330 (est. $200/400). Prunkl photo.
A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) carved this curlew
circa 1930. It sold to a phone bidder for $63,000 (est.
$35,000/45,000).
Now for something completely different—a James Dixon & Sons
leather case with two 64-ounce silver-plated Prohibition flasks. Just
the thing for a cold day in the duck blind. An absentee bidder bought
it for $2760 (est. $200/300). ☞
“For many years Cobb’s Island was the most famous resort in America for the combined
attraction of hunting and fishing; and a week’s stay at that place was like taking an ocean
trip abroad,” gushedAlexander Hunter in the 1908 book The Huntsman in the South. Nathan
Cobb Jr. was the son of the “Old man Cobb” mentioned in Hunter’s book. The younger Cobb
carved this hissing brant circa 1890. At $81,000 (est. $80,000/120,000) it was the top decoy
of the sale.