A rare redhead drake decoy made by Henry Keyes Chadwick of Oak Bluffs set records with a recent $23,000 sale at auction in Portsmouth, N.H.
According to a press release from decoy auction firm Guyette & Deeter Inc., the sale was a record for Vineyard decoys, as well as a record for decoys made by Mr. Chadwick, a carpenter and poultry farmer who carved decoys for his own use and to sell to other hunters. He was born in 1865 and died in 1958 and is said to have created more than 2,500 decoys, including carving redheads, goldeneye, black ducks, bluebills, mergansers, and brant. Mr. Chadwick’s total output of decoys is believed to be around 2,500. The record-setting decoy was carved circa 1900.
The previous record for a Martha’s Vineyard decoy came in 2011, when Guyette & Deeter Inc. sold a black duck decoy by Benjamin Pease for $22,425.
The world record decoy auction price of $856,000 is held by a merganser hen by Lothrop Holmes that sold in 2007 by Guyette & Deeter in conjunction with Christie’s (New York).
Gary Guyette will be on Martha’s Vineyard on June 27 and 28 giving free decoy appraisals and picking up decoys on consignment for future auctions. For more information or to learn more about decoy appraisals visit guyetteanddeeter.com.
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