The Sporting Sale 2007
Collectors and sporting art enthusiasts packed the Plymouth Radisson’s ballroom to capacity on July 26th as Copley Fine Art Auctions, LLC conducted its second annual sale of sporting art, antique decoys, rare books, and Americana. The one-day auction soared above its high estimate ($2,594,965 in total sales) with an exceptionally strong 93% lots sold.
Highlights from the decoys included an extraordinary running curlew by A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) of East Harwich, Massachusetts, estimated at $60,000/80,000, which sold for $186,500, a new world record for a Crowell decorative shorebird (see image at right). Another record for a single Crowell decorative upland bird was set with a life-sized woodcock selling for $66,125.
The painting results in the afternoon’s second session were especially strong. One of the more notable sales was the oil painting Blue-Fin Tuna by Lynn Bogue Hunt (1878-1960), which sold for a record-breaking $126,000. Watercolors by Boston artist Frank W. Benson (1862-1951) were also very strong—Flight of Egrets, a watercolor measuring 25 3⁄4 by 20 1⁄2 inches, sold for $103,000. A late addition watercolor by the same artist entitled Sea-gulls and Surf sold for $153,500, the second-highest price ever realized for a watercolor by the artist.
Life-Sized Woodcock
A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952)
East Harwich, MA, c. 1922
Sold for $66,125
Lynn Bogue Hunt
(1878-1960)
Blue-Fin Tuna
Oil on canvas, 18 by 24 in.
Sold for $126,000
Frank W. Benson
(1862-1951)
Sea-gulls and Surf, 1927
Watercolor, 19 1/2 by 24 1/4 in.
Sold for $153,500
Frank W. Benson
(1862-1951)
Flight of Egrets, 1931
watercolor, 25 3/4 by 20 1/2 in.
Sold for $103,000