Decoys attract big bucks

The latest results of a Guyette & Schmidt decoy auction may send Mainers scrambling to their garages and attics in search of buried treasure.

The company, which is based in West Baldwin and St. Michaels, Md., conducted its fall decoy auction in Easton, Md., and the sale grossed $4.5 million, with 59 lots selling for more than $10,000 and four lots selling for more than $100,000.

The top lot in the sale was a “dust jacket” feeding plover decoy made by Elmer Crowell of Cape Cod, Mass., which sold for $830,000 – more than twice its high estimate. That price established a world record for decoys, topping the $801,500 paid for another Crowell piece sold by Guyette & Schmidt in 2003.

Maine decoys in the sale included a pair of mergansers carved by Oscar Bibber of Harpswell, which sold for $49,450, and a preening black duck by Gus Wilson of South Portland, which sold for $47,150.

Guyette & Schmidt, which was established in 1983, is the world’s largest decoy auction firm with more than $95 million in decoy sales. Their primary office was located in Farmington until 2005.

Guyette & Schmidt will hold its next decoy auction on Jan. 19 at Christie’s in New York.

Guyette & Schmidt provides free decoy appraisals for anyone sending a decoy photo and stamped, self-addressed envelope to Guyette & Schmidt, P.O. Box 1170, St. Michaels, MD 21663, or to Frank Schmidt, 53 Weeman Road, West Baldwin, ME 04091.

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