Canada Goose Bookend Pair, Charles "Shang" Wheeler (1872-1949)

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The Winter Sale 2022, Day 1

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Mar 4, 2022

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• Lot Description
  Canada Goose Bookend Pair
  Charles "Shang" Wheeler (1872-1949)
  Stratford, CT, c. 1930
  11 in. tall
  
  An exquisite pair of life-size Canada goose decoy bookends made by “the Gentleman Carver from Connecticut.” The bookends exhibit slightly turned heads, appearing to glance at each other. Each body has excellent feathering detail. The birds are mounted to refined walnut bases.
  
  Charles Edward "Shang" Wheeler is widely recognized as the most celebrated bird carver from Connecticut. While his predecessor Albert Laing (1811-1886) is credited with originating the Connecticut style, and Benjamin Holmes (1843-1912), Laing's successor, made early gunning decoys of exceptional quality, it was Wheeler who took the craft to the next level. He introduced innovative carving and painting techniques and created everything from sandhill cranes to sailfish. "Shang," as everyone called him, was an enigmatic figure: oysterman, politician, boxer, cartoonist, public speaker, conservationist, and world-renowned decoy carver.
  
  Author Dixon Merkt remarked on Wheeler’s life: "Wheeler’s concern with the conservation of nature eventually led him into politics. Over the years he had come to know and admire Teddy Roosevelt...a skilled ornithologist, former cowboy, and avid sportsman, [who] made conservation one cornerstone of his political platform. Wheeler followed in his footsteps. During several terms in the Connecticut General Assembly he led the campaign to pass anti-pollution and wildlife conservation legislation.
  
  Unlike Teddy Roosevelt, Wheeler had no driving ambitions for public office. He went into politics because he wanted to clean up Connecticut’s harbors and rivers...His ties to Roosevelt and later to Herbert Hoover might have lead him to high government office, if that had been his goal. But Wheeler was satisfied with the life he had built for himself around Stratford. He had many good friends; his work kept him outdoors; and each year he had time for hunting and fishing trips."
  Original paint with light wear including minor flaking and minor white spatter.
  
  Provenance: Private Collection, New York
  
  Literature: Dixon MacD. Merkt, "Shang: A Biography of Charles E. Wheeler," Spanish Fork, UT, 1984.

  Condition

   Please email condition report requests to colin@copleyart.com. Any condition statement given is a courtesy to customers, Copley will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition.
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