Important American Paintings and Prints to Be Offered By Copley Fine Art Auctions On January 17, Copley Fine Art Auctions will conduct its first Winter Sale, offering 430 lots of top-notch American paintings, decoys and related folk art.
fleeting moment of suspense during a hunt. Grouse Shooting ($30/60,000) typifies his mastery of composition and balance, and five fishing scenes round out the fine selection of works by Pleissner. These include a study for Upper Malbaie, Grande River ($3/6,000) which was reproduced as a print, three additional studies, and a full-sheet watercolor of Stanton’s Camp ($30/40,000), a classic lodge in the Miramichi system built for Seabury Stanton, who headed the New England textile firm of Berkshire Hathaway until the 1960s.
Copley continues its tradition of bringing exceptional works to the market by top artists who painted dogs, with a notable oil on canvas of a setter and ruddy duck by Percival Rosseau ($30/50,000), two works by Edmund Osthaus, and a cover piece for Field & Stream by Arthur D. Fuller, among others. The selection of waterfowl paintings reads like a who’s who of sporting art, with works on offer by Harry Adamson, George Browne, Roland Clark, R. LeBarre Goodwin, Lynn Bogue Hunt, Francis Lee Jaques, and Sir Peter Scott. For the avid waterfowl art collector, a stunning custom-presented set of fifteen early Federal Duck Stamps and Prints will be offered ($15/25,000), from the very first - Ding Darling’s 1934 design - through Roger E. Preuss’ 1950 work (the set does not have the 1942 stamp). This set also includes the very rare first edition of Francis Lee Jaques’ 1940 stamp of black ducks, of which only 30 were printed.
The selection of American paintings is headlined by a large-scale ski scene by Eric Sloane, who depicted traditional New England scenes and activities. In this work, titled Rhone Valley - Sunrise on Pennine Alps, two skiers descend the slopes in the fresh morning powder ($10/20,000). Harold M. Brett, who made his name creating works for Harper’s Weekly at the turn of the century, is represented by an important oil of a checkers game ($10/15,000), and a delightful campfire scene by Karl Witkowski will also be on display ($10/20,000). Two idyllic pastoral scenes by Aiden Lassell Ripley join with a dramatic cliff scene by William Trost Richards ($5/10,000) to round out the offering of American paintings.
Fishing highlights include three fine works of leaping billfish. The dramatic Frank Hoffman painting of a sailfish, titled Excitement a-Plenty!, was reproduced for a Brown & Bigelow calendar in 1943 ($8/12,000), and two works by British wildlife artist Keith Shackleton that are characteristic of the artist’s action-packed paintings full of vibrant colors, animated brushstrokes, and unique stylized waves (each $1/3,000).
Nine original works by Massachusetts artist Aiden Lassell Ripley will come across the block. Prominent paintings by the artist include Landlocked Salmon Water ($25/35,000), a watercolor featured in The Ultimate Fishing Book, and a classic life-size winter grouse scene titled Grouse Budding ($10/20,000), which is joined by a study for the same painting. Trout from Laurel Brook ($5/10,000) and Buck Deer ($5/10,000) round out the watercolors on offer by Ripley.
The second portion of the Winter Sale will feature two hundred and thirty decoy lots
_small.jpg)
