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THBJames Lippitt Clark (1883-1969), King Buck
About Seller
20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States
Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more
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About Auction
LiveFeb 22, 2025
Lots 262-501 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com
View Full Catalog (240)
- Lot Description
James Lippitt Clark (1883-1969)
King Buck, 1955
titled, signed, and dated "Jas. L. Clark Sc. © 1955" on base
bronze, 9 1/2 by 11 by 5 1/4 in.
edition of 15
John Merrill Olin (1892-1982) was the inventor or co-inventor of twenty-four US patents in the field of arms and ammunition manufacture and design. Not only a titan of industry, Olin also established a foundation which distributed over $350 million to universities and think tanks.
John and his wife Evelyn Olin bred and raced thoroughbred racehorses, winning the 1963 Epsom Oaks and the 1974 Kentucky Derby. In 1958 John and Evelyn Olin appeared together in their hunting garb on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The article, titled "A Man, A Dog and A Crusade: John Olin, Maker of Shotgun Shells, Made the Game Preserve A National Concern," notes, "He is proud of King Buck, who is a personal project of his, and for that matter he is probably prouder of his kennels and of adjacent Nilo Farms, a sprawling, game-rich, 522-acre shooting preserve, than of any other part of his considerable empire. This is the place where John Olin would rather spend his time than anywhere else in the world."
"From fall to spring on many a day he can be found roaming through the lush acreage after pheasants or crouched in a blind waiting for flighted mallards to come winging overhead. In between, he works his dogs, readying himself and them for the dozens of field trials which are his favorite hobby."
King Buck was a storied retriever who won back-to-back National Retriever Field Trial Championships in both 1952 and 1953, as commemorated on the plaque that reads, "Natl. F.T. Champion 1952 1953, Presented to Evelyn B. Olin by John M. Olin Dec. 25, 1955." Over the course of his career, King Buck competed in eighty-three national field trials. He was also the subject of Maynard Reece's 1959 Federal Duck Stamp painting, the first duck stamp to include a dog.
Among his many concerns, Olin served on the board of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he likely encountered sculptor James Lippitt Clark, who was head taxidermist and preparator there. Clark also worked for Gorham and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Olin commissioned a life-size sculpture of King Buck from Clark in 1955, which currently resides on the dog's grave at Nilo Farms, as well as fifteen of these smaller editions. Lois Peach was John Olin's executive secretary for many years and received this bronze as a memento of her employer.
Provenance: John and Evelyn Olin Collection
Estate of Lois I. Peach, gifted from the above
Private Collection, Missouri
Literature: Virginia Kraft, "A Man, A Dog and A Crusade: John Olin, Maker of Shotgun Shells, Made the Game Preserve A National Concern," Sports Illustrated, November 17, 1958.Condition
Please email condition report requests to leah@copleyart.com.
- Shipping Info
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Shipping info
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