O'Brien Webster Raised-Wing Golden Plover Decoy, Mr. Webster

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The Sporting Sale 2021, Day 1

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Jul 9, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-07-09 10:00:00 2021-07-09 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Sporting Sale 2021, Day 1 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/copley/the-sporting-sale-2021-day-1-7026
Lots 1-246 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com

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• Lot Description
  O'Brien Webster Raised-Wing Golden Plover
  Mr. Webster
  Nantucket, MA, c. 1850
  9 3/4 in. long
  
  Early collectors Donal C. O"Brien Jr., William J. Mackey Jr., and Adele Earnest all believed that the plover from this rig were among the finest works of American folk art they had ever come across. Collectable Old Decoy Specialist Dick McIntyre concurs; "Crowell's, Bunn's, Nichols', and Cobb's all have their artistic eminence. These spread-wing golden plover by Mr. Webster go beyond any of the boundaries set by his contemporaries....they are purely folk art."
  
  Mackey and O'Brien hunted down and acquired fifteen of the seventeen examples that surfaced. Of these only four have the highly coveted raised wings with the majority of the smooth-wing examples still held in the O"Brien collection.
  
  The group, while cohesive in its paint, which depicts breeding plumage, appears to have been made without a pattern. This free-hand approach produced a lively flock with no two birds exactly alike. The head of this decoy was applied, as was the norm for this maker and others on Nantucket. The inquisitive turn to the side is far less common.
  
  The O'Brien Muller Webster plover set the record for any Nantucket decoy when it sold last year. This O"Brien-Johnson example offers shorebird, decoy, and Americana collectors a rare opportunity to acquire this nearly unobtainable form.
  Original paint with even gunning wear and a three-quarter inch replacement to tip of bill.
  
  Provenance: Franklin Folger Webster Collection, Nantucket, Massachusetts
  Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection
  The Johnson Collection, acquired from the above, 2005
  
  Literature: Milton C. Weiler, "The Classic Decoy Series: A Portfolio of Paintings," New York, NY, 1969, pl. 2, rigmate illustrated. William Doyle Galleries, "Waterfowl and Shorebird Decoys," New York, NY, April 15, 1981, back cover and p. 61, lot 76, rigmate illustrated twice. Joe Engers, "Dr. Peter J. Muller: Bringing a good eye and an artistic approach to decoy collecting," Decoy Magazine, January/February 2008, p. 8, rigmate illustrated. Robert Shaw, "Call to the Sky: The Decoy Collection of James M. McCleery, M.D.," Houston, TX, 1992, p. 13, related example illustrated. Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., "Very Rare and Important American Bird Decoys from the Collection of the late William J. Mackey Jr. of Belford, New Jersey," Hyannis, MA, 1973, Session III, lot 320, rigmate illustrated. Jeff Waingrow, "The American Decoy: Folk Sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Donal C. O"Brien Jr.," The Clarion: America"s Folk Art Magazine, Fall 1981, p. 30, closely related rigmate illustrated. Jackson Parker, "O"Brien Classic Decoys on Display at Museum of American Folk Art," North American Decoys Magazine, Spring/Summer 1982, p. 34, rigmate illustrated. Laurence Sheehan, "The Sporting Life," New York, NY, 1992, p. 79, two O'Brien rigmates illustrated. Copley Fine Art Auctions, "The Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, Sessions I-II," July 27, 2017, inside front cover, six rigmates illustrated in O"Brien"s living room.

  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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