Goldeneye Pair by Charles E. "Shang" Wheeler (1872-1949)

Lot 414

About Seller

65 Sharp Street
Hingham, MA 02043
United States

Copley Fine Art Auctions is the world's leading American sporting art auction company. Located in Hingham, MA, Copley specializes in antique decoys and 19th- and 20th-century American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Principal Stephen O'Brien Jr., a fourth-generation sportsman with a refined colle...Read more

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The Winter Sale 2016 by Copley Fine Art Auctions

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Feb 12, 2016 - Feb 13, 2016

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Lot Description

Charles E. "Shang" Wheeler (1872-1949)
Stratford, CT, c. 1935

Charles Edward "Shang" Wheeler is recognized as the most famous bird carver from Connecticut. While his predecessors Albert Laing (1811-1886) and Benjamin Holmes (1843-1912) 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, and as a politician he adopted Roosevelt’s brand of progressive Republicanism. Himself a skilled ornithologist, former cowboy, and avid sportsman, Roosevelt had 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 Roosevelt, Wheeler had no driving ambitions. He went into politics because he wanted to clean up Connecticut’s harbors and river. He did much of the hard work and then let other men win the laurels. 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."

Provenance: Private Collection, Connecticut
Private Collection, Midwest

Literature: Dixon MacD. Merkt. "Shang. A Biography of Charles E. Wheeler," Spanish Fork, UT, 1984, p. 147, plate 136, similar decoy illustrated. Henry C. Chitwood, "Connecticut Decoys," West Chester, PA, 1987, p. 47, similar decoys illustrated.

Condition

Original paint with very light wear, drake has chip to underside of bill tip and tail edge wear.
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