Live Summer Sale Brings Just Under $3.3 Million

Guyette & Deeter, Inc. of St. Michaels, Maryland, conducted their annual summer decoy and sporting art auction on July 29 & 30 at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum also located in St. Michaels. A well-attended preview party was held at the Guyette & Deeter office the evening of July 28 with complementary oysters, hors d'oeuvres, and cocktails.

The sale featured decoys and sporting art from the collections of Ron Davis, Dave Fannon, Mark Goldman, Charlie Hart, Dr. Lynwood Herrington, Charlie Hunter, III, John & Dennis Jenny, Don Kirson, Dr. Preston Lowe, D.C. North, Kirby & Linda Roberts, Nancy & Randy Root, Rick & Liz Sandstrom, Geoff Stead, Jim Thompson, and Herb Wetanson, 

After two days of auctions, gross sales totaled just under $3.3 million, with 72 lots selling for over $10,000, including one over $200,000. The top lot in the sale was an important swimming brant by Nathan Cobb, Jr., which brought $252,000. Prices were strong throughout the sale, with a hollow golden plover from Nantucket selling for $75,000, a pintail by Dave “Umbrella” Watson selling for $70,800, a curlew by Eli Doughty selling for $56,400, and a slope breast mallard from the Mason Decoy Factory selling for $48,000. Decorative decoys sold well too, with a Larry Hayden woodduck selling for a carver record of $42,000.

Decoys weren’t the only highlight of the sale. Guyette & Deeter continue to get high prices for sporting art, with an Edmund Osthaus oil on canvas selling for $69,600 and an Aiden Lassell Ripley watercolor going for $45,000. Folk art was well represented in the sale. Three cigar store Indian carvings from the Mark Goldman collection sold at their mid-estimates of $84,000, $39,000, and $27,000, as well as an 80” tall folk art whimsey tower featured in the 1893 World’s Fair selling for $33,000.