Sporting Art Gems on the Block – Garden & Gun
Last weekend, during the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina, curious attendees gathered to see Mark McNair, a renowned Decoy carver from the Virginia coast, sculpts wooden blocks for the beginnings of his next artworks. McNair began carving in the 1970s, and as of this Friday a collection of his lures will be among more than 650 lots crossing the block at the live Copley Winter Sale (February 24-25), an annual sports art auction, for which has become known to be setting bait sales records. (Last year’s top sale, the Harmon Hollow Nantucket Curlew, sold for $228,000, doubling the previous world record for a Nantucket lure.) But the auction also features plenty of smaller tickets.
SEWE visitors strolled through an auction preview and viewed rare lures from carvers including the famous Maryland Ward brothers, stunning black and white etchings by artist Frank Benson and an outstanding painting by Richard E. Bishop. Prairie Wings, on which mallards land against a bright blue Arkansas sky. The mallard painting was part of the revered The 1946 book of the same name, published by Ducks Unlimited, and a copy of the book accompanies the painting. Take a look at these and other highlights of the auction below, available for telephone and online bidding.
Early Merganser pair, c. 1975 Mark S McNair, Craddockville, Virginia. During McNair’s demonstration at SEWE he explained how the shape of a sawyer’s neck has long inspired him as an artist and these are some of his early works.
Extraordinary Mallard, 1938, Ward Brothers, Crisfield, Maryland. “The Ward brothers were known for making very few early mallards,” explains the auction catalogue. “It wasn’t until the 1940s that the mallard population began to increase along the Atlantic Flyway. For this reason, mallard decoys of famous East Coast carvers such as Joseph Lincoln (1859-1938) and Harry V. Shourds (1861-1920) are almost non-existent. Aside from the general rarity of early Ward Mallards, the shape, color and condition of this lure is unsurpassed among styles made by Wards or any other lure maker.
The auction features traditional lures, including a whistle, by living carver and folk artist Frank S. Finney of Capeville, Virginia. But Copley owner Stephen B. O’Brien Jr. points to Finney’s whimsical sculpture owl and crow tree as a surprise hit. “Finney’s work often tells stories,” he says. “This particular carving speaks to the unusual relationship between a great horned owl and a murdered crow. Both the owl and the crow compete for the same terrain in the forest, and Finney seems to delight in the allegorical tale of these two enemies.”
Prairie Wings, 1945, oil on canvas, Richard E. Bishop, Syracuse, New York. An edition of the book Prairie Wings by Edgar M. Queeny, published by Ducks Unlimited in 1946, is included in the lot. As the catalog explains: “[Bishop] studied the landing patterns of birds over Wingmead, [Queeny’s] 14,000-acre property in Arkansas that had three named green tree reservoirs: Wingmead, Paddlefoot, and Greenwood. Queeny has been an active patron of Bishop and collaborated with the artist on the many illustrations throughout the book, including the full color cover.”
The Harmon Running Cobb Curlew, Nathan F. Cobb Jr. (1825–1905), Cobb Island, Virginia. “Each Nathan Cobb’s lure had its own natural pose,” wrote William J. Mackey Jr. in American bird decoys. “Even his Hudsonian Curlews seemed to run, eat and walk.”
fragrance on the side, Oil on canvas, Julie Jeppsen, a contemporary self-taught artist living in Montana. As the catalog describes, “Jeppsen took special care in rendering her own two dogs, a Labrador and a pointer, in this bright, lively work of sport.”
Early black humpback, The Ward Brothers, Crisfield, Maryland. “Stephen W. Ward (1895-1976) and his brother Lemuel Travis Ward (1896-1984) were by far the best-known Chesapeake Bay carvers of the twentieth century and were among the greatest and most influential bird carvers of all time,” Robert Shaw wrote in Bird Bait of North America. “The brothers have worked closely together throughout their lives, combining the complementary talents of Steve’s hand carving and Lem’s brushwork to create works of exceptional grace and realism.”
A handful of etchings by Frank Benson (1862–1951) will cross the block, including this one Lonely Pintail1930. The Massachusetts-born artist worked in a variety of mediums, including oil and watercolor, but his etchings are among his best-known works for athletic art collectors.
Double Sailor Valentine, by Harry Bextel, New Haven, Connecticut. “A handcrafted scallop valentine in a double octagonal mahogany and glass display case,” the catalog describes. “Originally made in the late nineteenth century, these valentines were made at sea, brought home from a sea voyage and gifted to a loved one.”
Rig of Seven Golden Plover, Coffin Family, Nantucket, Massachusetts, c. 1870. “This has been an exciting auction to catalog and present to the market, particularly because of several important collections which have hitherto been privately owned, such as the Stephen O’Brien Sr. collection of Nantucket lures”, Colin, Copley’s bait specialist says McNair. “Over the years many rigs have often been broken up into singles or pairs.” This rig is a rare intact grouping.