The Sporting Sale 2017
Copley realized $4.8 million in sales at The Sporting Sale 2017. The two-day sale was over 92% sold by lot and the sold lots achieved an impressive 118% of their high estimate. The sale featured items from the Donal C. O’Brien, Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, as well as works from the collections of Harry and Judy Bextel, Barrie and Bernice Stavis, Rafe Lapham and Martha Andrea, Grant Nelson, and the Estate of Francis Gowen.
Sessions I and II of the Donal C. O’Brien, Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys were 100% sold with an outstanding average price per lot of over $27,000 per decoy. Nineteen world records were achieved for artists and decoy makers in this historic sale. Eight items sold for six-figure prices, including seven decoys and one painting. The turned-head “dust jacket” black-bellied plover by Elmer Crowell sold for $174,000.
Wood Duck Drake
Thomas Chambers (1860-1948)
Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada, c. 1900
SOLD FOR $270,000, more than doubling its estimate ($80/120,000) and setting a record for the carver and also a national record for any Canadian decoy
The Barber-O'Brien Ruddy Duck Decoy
Lee Dudley (1860-1942)
Knotts Island, NC, c. 1895
SOLD FOR $234,000
Arthur Burdett Frost
(1851-1928)
Supper in Camp
gouache and watercolor, 17 by 26 1/2 in.
SOLD FOR $168,000
Ogden M. Pleissner
(1905-1983)
Down's Gulch
oil on canvas, 24 by 36 in.
SOLD FOR $84,000