Copley Fine Art Auctions Features Harmon Hollow Nantucket Curlew Decoy in Upcoming Two-Day Sporting Sale

Inside Copley Fine Art Auctions ‘ Two-Day Sporting Sale, collectors will find a Harmon Hollow Nantucket curlew decoy. The appearance of this featherweight, hollow plover decoy shows off its meticulously carved wings, from a raised shoulder to connected wing tips that lead to a thin, curved tail with V-parted feathering and tiger striping. The craftsman responsible for this artwork and its date of completion are unknown. These detailed features, combined with the curlew’s fine design and execution, have been compared to the works of A. Elmer Crowell (1862 – 1952), Fred Nichols (1854 – 1924), Charles Sumner Bunn (1865 – 1952), and others, although this piece is thought to predate these craftsmen by decades. Regarding this piece and its creator, the auction house states: “This Nantucket carver is among the greatest craftsmen ever to construct a working shorebird decoy,” and that this curlew is “among the greatest shorebird decoys ever to surface.”

Also available is a rare curlew decoy by Charles Sumner Bunn (1865 – 1952), a member of New York’s Shinnecock-Montauk Native American tribe and an important figure in duck carving. This exceptional decoy has only recently been discovered. The piece had been passed down through a prominent New York family that had traded a 19th-century city life for one in the Hamptons. With very few decoys of this nature still in existence and even fewer circulating, this decoy is said to be “one of the greatest shorebird decoy discoveries in recent memory.” Visit Bidsquare to view the entire collection and explore other online auctions.