Set amid the posh environs of Boston’s Newbury Street, where high-end boutiques and upscale eateries crowd the promenade, is Stephen B. O’Brien Jr.’s gallery of American sporting art. Here, patrons festooned in Armani and Gucci mix, albeit coolly, with those clad in Orvis and L.L. Bean. O’Brien’s gallery is a microcosm of one of the fastest growing fields of American folk art: antique waterfowl decoys.

Decoy collecting, traditionally reserved for hunters, sportsmen and conservation enthusiasts, has recently been adopted by legions of folk art collectors who have come to recognize the craftsmanship and artistry involved in this quintessentially American art form. Many decoys still bear the scars of a hunter’s gun, permanent marks to remind collectors that the sculptures they now admire were once the tools of the trade for outdoorsmen. While not many antiques can retain their value after being peppered by a shotgun blast, waterfowl decoys have been soaring to new heights at auction, making them a prime target for investment-savvy collectors.

A PREENING Canada goose by Crowell, circa 1917, purchased by O’Brien for $684,500 at an auction in 2000. The 2000 auction ushered in a new era in decoy collecting.

“The market for decoys has never been stronger,” says Gary Guyette of Guyette and Schmidt, the nation’s top decoy auction firm. “Ten years ago I would have known everyone in the room at a decoy auction. Nowadays we have dozens of people bidding top dollar, and I have no idea who they are.” Although sportsmen still comprise the majority of collectors, recent auctions have broken new ground, broadening the field and livening up the market.  

In January 2000, Sotheby’s auctioned the collection of James M. McCleery of Texas, credited by many as the finest private collection of waterfowl decoys ever assembled. Much as Andy Warhol’s estate auction legitimized tchotchke collecting, the McCleery sale ushered in a new era of decoy collecting. It smashed nearly every decoy record to date, and, perhaps more importantly, welcomed a new species of decoy aficionado. The outstanding quality of McCleery’s decoys, further burnished by Sotheby’s public relations machine, lured long-time decoy hunters into bidding wars against newcomers whose only previous experience with birds was limited to dodging pigeons perched outside the auction house doors.

The McCleery auction brought in $11 million, shattering the presale estimates of $5 million to $6 million. A preening Canada goose by master carver Elmer Crowell (1864–1954), sold for $684,500, nearly doubling the previous auction record for a decoy. In fact, prior records were broken by four separate decoys in the landmark sale. The success of the McCleery sale set the stage for another highly successful and highly publicized event, the 2003 Christie’s auction of the Russell B. Aitken wildfowl decoy collection. Garnering a total of more than $2.8 million, the auction saw another decoy world record: $801,500 for a rare pintail drake decoy carved by Crowell. The same piece had previously sold at public auction in 1986 for a then-record $319,000.

Flight Patterns
These high-flying prices are becoming more common and, to stretch the metaphor, see no signs of heading south. O’Brien, a third-generation decoy enthusiast and collector, maintains that the New York auctions were just the beginning of a strong investment market. “The McCleery sale was the ideal sale at an ideal time—an unbelievable collection that came on the market in the middle of the tech boom and before the events of September 11,” he explains. “If you would have told me that even after the tech crash and the 9/11 attacks that we would have stronger prices for decoys today, I would have said you are crazy. But here we are.”

Indeed, the decoy market seems to be defying some conventions of the collectible world. Experts, albeit ones with significant interest in the continued growth of this arena, contend that several favorable factors are creating an atmosphere that is sympathetic to both buyers and sellers. According to Guyette, many highly coveted decoys will appear on the market in the next decade, as aging collectors liquidate their troves. “The typical decoy collector is in his 70s, and many of them are well into their 80s. I’m 54, and I’m one of the kids in this area,” he says. “This is coinciding with a flood of new buyers in the market, as well as an improvement in the financial situation of existing buyers. Consider these three factors happening together, and I think we will be in for an incredible ride for quite a while. I see no immediate reason for this market to top off.”

Like a hunter who kept his favorite duck blind secret for decades, only to find it invaded by beer-swilling teenagers, many veteran collectors look askance at new buyers who seem to have stumbled upon their terrain. “The new breed of decoy collectors coming into the market wants an entire collection today,” says Joe Engers, publisher of Decoy magazine. “I’ve known collectors who have waited 20 or 30 years for one particular bird to come on the market, only to have new buyers push the prices to a height they may not have wanted to go to.” Free from the weight of history that long-time collectors carry, Engers says it is common to see new buyers bidding $75,000 for a bird that sold for $35,000 only a few years ago.

Guyette attributes this phenomenon to the fact that most new buyers come from a background in which auction estimates are set deliberately low so presale expectations can be easily met. “They expect to bid two to three times the estimate because they are used to that in the fine arts market,” he says. “Unfortunately, that is not the case at decoy auctions.” On the other hand, Guyette points out, decoy dilettantes are not always to blame for skyrocketing prices. Some veteran collectors simply ignore presale estimates entirely and will inflate prices simply because they desire a particular decoy. “They don’t really care what the experts say it is worth,” he adds.

A PREENING pintail drake by Elmer Crowell, purchased in 2003 by Stephen O’Brien Jr. for $801,500, setting the world record for a price paid on a duck decoy.

While trends continue upward, O’Brien notes that new collectors can still ferret out opportunities to buy undervalued birds at auction. Historically, carvers throughout the United States and Canada created birds specific to the region in which they carved. Long Island craftsmen, such as Obediah Verity, created decoys of birds native to that area. Other carvers from such duck-hunting hot spots as the Chesapeake Bay, Maritime Canada, Massachusetts and Minnesota did likewise. Collectors share this regional pride. “Decoy lovers tend to have an affinity for birds from their own region of the country,” O’Brien explains. “For any number of reasons, typically the death or divorce of a regional collector, some areas become hot while others cool off. These fluctuations present excellent buying opportunities.”

Guyette admits that he usually advises his clients to diversify their decoy holdings across a broad spectrum of regions, much like diversifying a stock portfolio. “Don’t just buy New England birds; buy some from the Midwest, the South or the West Coast,” he says. Many new buyers, however, have shunned this geographic collecting strategy and are choosing decoys based solely upon a carver’s reputation. Crowell, Lothrop Holmes and Nathan Cobb Jr. may never be household names, but in decoy circles their creations have reached celebrity status.

VALUE JUDGEMENT Antique waterfowl decoys represent a unique arena of American folk art. In recent years, they have also become prized collectibles; the most coveted pieces easily garner six figures at auction. But newcomers to this market can still find lower barriers to entry by focusing on high-quality works in various price categories and heeding fluctuations in geographical trends.

Buying strictly big-name decoys is a fairly safe strategy, but collectors should remember that birds are not judged by name alone. “Just like in the fine art market—people jump when they hear a name like Picasso or Matisse—people get excited when they hear the name Elmer Crowell,” O’Brien says. “But I’ve seen some very average Crowell examples going for way above average prices. That is a mistake.”

Knowing a carver’s history also helps buyers make smart decisions. “We just sold a Crowell ruddy duck for $177,000,” Guyette says. “He only made two ruddy duck decoys that anyone is aware of. If it were a standard mallard, it would be lucky to have brought in $30,000.”

A decoy’s condition carries great weight in determining its value, but collectors in this field are more forgiving with their assessments than most other antique collectors. Nancy Druckman, head of the American folk department at Sotheby’s, explains decoys were carved and painted with the intention of being used in the field. “The market favors actual working models rather than highly decorative decoys that never saw the water,” she adds. Working decoys were stacked in the back of boats and cars or carried to hunting camps by the dozen in canvas sacks. Over the course of time, they suffered dings and chips. Many decoys were repainted at the beginning of every season, although those with the original paint intact retain more value. There also should be signs of rust and corrosion on the underside of the bird where a lead weight was attached.

AN IMPORTANT mallard drake by Hucks Caines, circa 1910. Purchase price: $189,500.

Some devotees, however, take the path less traveled. They find that the more rewarding method for uncovering investment-quality birds is by immersing themselves in decoy culture. Engers suggests buying auction catalogs, trade magazines and “stacks and stacks of decoy books,” prior to sticking a toe into this particular pond. Experience provides the most valuable education; the greatest advantage long-time collectors have over newcomers is the ability to make wise choices in the heat of the auction house sales floor. “If you’ve seen 100 Ira Hudson black ducks, you’ll get to know which ones are good and which ones are not,” Engers explain. “If you’ve only seen three, you probably won’t.” Immersion requires a considerable time investment, traveling to shows and auctions, talking to experts and asking questions. “Talk to collectors and ask them why this bird is worth $35,000 while a similar one is only worth $3,000,” Engers adds. “Believe me, this is their passion, and they are more than happy to talk about it.”

Despite the heady prices of today’s market, many of the collectors seem to have settled on an uncomplicated fact: Investment-quality decoys are works of art that may be enjoyed for their aesthetic qualities. Because of this, many successful collectors give credit to their gut reactions. If they fall in love with a particular decoy, regardless of price, that one will most likely become a jewel in their collection. “Collecting decoys should not just be an investment exercise,” Sotheby’s Druckman contends. “The craftsmanship that went into these birds is astounding, and collectors should find something of the joy and beauty in these creations.”  

Photography courtesy Stephen B. O'Brien Jr. Fine Arts.