O'Brien Fine Arts Sells $1.1 Million Decoys Stephen O'Brien Jr. Fine Arts of Boston announced the record breaking sale of A. Elmer Crowell's preeing duck and sleeping Canada goose decoys for $1.1 million each.
News-Antique.com - Sep 20,2007 - Stephen B. O'Brien Jr. Fine Arts, Boston, announced the record-shattering private sale of A. Elmer Crowell's preening pintail drake decoy and sleeping Canada goose decoy for a record-setting $1.1 million each.
Decoy broker O'Brien said,"Dealers and collectors have been guessing for years at which decoys would be the first to reach the million dollar mark. They have to wonder no longer; there are two."
The sale of the two million-dollar decoys was part of a larger private sale of 31 decoys brokered by Stephen B. O'Brien Jr. Fine Arts for $7.25 million.
The decoys are no stranger to the limelight: The duck decoy c. 1915 was last sold in 2003 at Christie's for a then record-setting price of $801,500. In 1986 the duck sold for $319,000 at a Richard Oliver acution in Kennebunk, Maine. The sleeping Canada goose c. 1917 last sold in 2000 at Sotheby's for a then record-setting price of $684,500.
O'Brien sid, "Crowell is known as arguably the best decoy carver and painter of all time." Joe Engers, Editor of Decoy Magazine said, "WIthout a doubt, the pintail drake is the most familiar decoy in the world."
In 1914, a Boston Globe reporter interviewed Crowell and pronounced his work "the best decoys produced by hand in any workshop." U.S. Postage Stamps in 1974 and 1988 featured Crowell's decoys.
Founded in 1996, Stephen O'Brien Jr. Fine Arts is one of the leading private dealer of antique decoys in the world. In 2006, O'Brien launched Copy Fine Art Auctions, which deals in decoys, sporting art, Americana, and folk art. Additional information is available at www.copleyart.com
