ASTORIA’S 1910 CIRCA BERGMAN SWAN DECOY SOARS AT SOTHEBY’S FIRST DECOY AUCTION IN NEW YORK

BERGMAN SWAN ON BLOCK AT SOTHEBY’S IN New YORK. January 22, 2000 at 2pm was the opening of the first decoy auction held at Sotheby’s. The distinguished Collection of the late Dr James McCleery was offered to the public. The leading decoy auction house Guyette & Schmidt teamed up with Sotheby’s for the sale of the millennium. McCleery’s collection was the one of the finest decoy collections ever assembled. Hundreds of collectors from all over the country flocked to see, bid or just witness this historical decoy event. The sale was a two-day episode.

Astoria decoy collector Bill Carter and his son Sean flew across the country to Sotheby’s in New York to try to take the circa 1910 Charles Bergman swan back to the West Coast. Carter and his son got to New York the day before the auction, through bitter wind chill temperatures of -15 degrees to preview the decoys.

Collector Bill Carter; an Astoria decoy authority holds the Bergman swan at the Sotheby’s decoy exhibition. In suspense he will have the wining bid. This swan is one of the three that are known to exist. The story is that Grandma Bergman got tired of tripping over them on the porch so she chopped all but three up for firewood. There is one owned by a collector in San Francisco and one in Turlock ca. with a complete head and partial neck replacement and the one Carter holds.

Dr Jim McCleery intensely collected decoys and hunting artifacts for 25 years, with his highly experienced eye for the best, he assembled the most superb collection of waterfowl decoys. Most of McCleery’s decoys were from other parts of the country not from the West Coast. Out of the 641 lots of mostly decoys offered (some lots had more than one item in it) only 12 lots were from the West Coast and only 1 decoy lot from Oregon the swan and 7 decoy lots from California. There were 4 lots of shell boxes and 2 Indian baskets from the West Coast.

Dr. McCleery had purchased the swan about 15 yrs ago. It has been in Pasadena, Texas every since. He also had a few other West Coast Decoys in his collection. The better ones were a pair of teal made in 1935 in Westwood, California by Horace “Hie”Crandall and a 1948 feeding pintail by John Tornberg of San Francisco California.

At the auction preview Carter started wondering if he would take the swan home. There was just too many women wearing fur coats, they weren’t even decoy collectors. They might have been Sotheby’s clients for furniture. One hour before the decoy auction started, Sotheby’s was finishing a furniture auction. People were paying $80,000 for chairs and Carter saw a piece of furniture go for over $800,000.

The first decoy to start this exhilarating event was a John Blair mallard of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania estimated at $17,500 to 22,500 it sold for $60,250. Lot # 2 John Blair mallard hen estimate at $22,500 to $27,500 sold for an astounding $112,500. By now Carter was getting a little anxious about the lots he would bid on. The Bergman swan estimate at $9,000 to $12,000 lot # 11 was just minuets away what was going to come to pass? Carter was hoping that the interest on it would be minimal. The swan had a bad bill replacement and had been almost completely repainted by the collector who purchased it from the Bergman Family over 20 years ago. Still the Bergman swan is considered by many to be the best West Coast decoy ever made and possibly the best swan in the entire country. If Carter got the swan he was going to have the bill replace correctly by a professional decoy restorer. If he got it? And possibly restore the paint to look original. Restoration should only be done as a last resort and only by a professional decoy restorer. There are just a small number of good restorers in the entire country. Nonprofessionals have ruined many great decoys.

Sean Carter at Sotheby’s New York decoy auction preview, holding an Elmer Crowell sleeping Canada goose of East Harwich, Massachusetts. This was the highest paid for any decoy at auction it sold for a record price of $684,500 after commissions plus any sale taxes. Sean was a little bit afraid that he might drop the decoy while his father took his picture. This was Sean and his father’s first trip to New York. The unknown goose in the background sold for $233,500 after commission plus any sales tax. The highest paid for a shore bird was a Ruddy Turnstone by Lothorp Holmes of Kingston; Massachusetts sold for $470,000 after commission plus any sales tax. It was estimated to go for $75,000 to $125,000, its Carter’s favorite shore bird he did not bid on it.

When the Bergman swan landed on the auction block it started out slow about $3,500 and slowly move up to $10,000 which at that time Carter started raising his Sotheby’s #329 blue and white bidding paddle. Then it continued to climb at $1,000 per bid, Carter’s last bid was $25,000 then he pulled out of the chase. The winner also had to pay 15% commission to the auction house plus 8.25% sales tax to New York State. That would have made the cost of the swan if he got it at $25,000 to be a total of $30,800. The swan continued to sore to the hammer price of $31,000, with commission and tax it cost the buyer $38,200 to add it to there collection. This is the highest ever paid at auction for any Bergman decoy or any West Coast decoy. The highest Bergman to sell at auction before this was a hen teal in mint condition that brought $5,500.

The highest factory decoy to ever sell at auction was a one of a kind Mason Factory premier grade wood duck. Mason factory went out of business in 1924 and was located in Michigan. The wood duck sold for $354,500 after commission and before sales taxes.

Carter bid on 3 West Coast lots and they all went for almost three times the auction-cataloged estimate. Carter came home without the Bergman swan or any other decoys to add to his collection. But he and his son went to the top of the Empire State Bld, walked thru Central Park, shop for his lovely wife at Saks Fifth Ave and made some wonderful memories. He is still hopeful that maybe grandma Bergman might not have chopped all but three of the 12 original 1910 swans. Maybe someday he will find one of those if any exists and add it to his collection.

Some collectors at the auction said it was brilliant what Sotheby’s and Guyette & Schmidt Inc. did by joining forces to promote and sell the McCleery collection. They might of estimated the first two lots below what they were worth expectant that they would go much higher at set the stage for the entire auction. Whatever they did it worked and they sold The Dr. James McCleery collection for a grand total of over $10,965,935 plus any New York sales tax owed. Carter does not think that future auctions will be able to get the elevated prices that this auction did. Other auctions do not take into account the numbers of class decoys in them and the extraordinary name of Dr. James McCleery.

Charles Bergman with a group of his finest works and in the collection of Bill Carter imposed on a photo by Bill Wagner of swans flying over duck shacks on the Columbia River. Carter has specialized in Astoria Oregon decoys for over 14 years. For more information on Astoria decoys, duck skiffs, duck shacks and duck hunting in Astoria Oregon visit Carter’s web site at THE ASTORIA GROUP www.decoy.net