The Donal C. O’Brien, Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys
Copley Fine Art Auctions Sporting Sale
The Hotel 1620, 180 Water Street
Plymouth, MA, July 27–28, 2017
For information call 617.536.0030 or visit http://www.copleyart.com/
Copley Fine Art Auctions, LLC will present the Donal C. O’Brien, Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys on July 27. The Collection, built and curated over six decades by one of America’s great conservationists, is virtually unrivaled in its breadth and quality. It is considered by many to be the finest sporting art and American bird decoy collection ever assembled, totaling well over 500 objects and constituting a remarkably complete collection of classic sporting art and decoys.
O’Brien was among the first to recognize decoys as a true American art form rather than as strictly utilitarian; he was an avid and early collector in numerous fields. In a 2005 Forbes article by Monte Burke, O’Brien noted, “When I was a young boy, while my friends were playing with electric trains and teddy bears, I was out collecting decoys.” Many of his decoys were “source collected” directly from the carvers and their families during the early, emerging days of decoy collecting, giving them premium quality and impeccable provenance.
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O’Brien was very active in the 1950s and ‘60s, trading with Adele Ernest, Malcolm Fleming, William J. Mackey, Jr., and other early collectors. Whereas Mackey collected quantity and Ernest was a dealer, O’Brien was a connoisseur. As a carver himself, he brought his artistic eye to his pursuit, and his influence shaped decoy collecting as we know it today.
O’Brien was an attorney with the New York firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy, where he served as legal counsel to the Rockefeller family. As an ardent conservationist, O’Brien was a leader of the Audubon Society for decades, as well as the Atlantic Salmon Federation and other conservation organizations. In particular, O’Brien helped to further the concept of Important Bird Areas, or IBAs, raising awareness of the four main migratory flyways. In O’Brien’s New York Times obituary, David Yarnold, Audubon Society’s chief executive, notes, “Birds don’t know about state boundaries [and] Donal was always urging Audubon to think the way birds see the world—to think about large-scale conservation.’”
O’Brien was chairman of the board of the Audubon Society for fifteen years and involved for over twenty-five years. He was the recipient of the Audubon Medal in 2010, one of the highest honors in conservation. His obituary continues, “Like many of the nation’s early conservationists, Mr. O’Brien expressed much of that passion through hunting; he also amassed an enormous collection of duck decoys.” Indeed, a 1971 Sports Illustrated feature on O’Brien states, “his prize-winning collection of decoys seems out of this world.”
- Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896–1969), Grouse on a Hard Pine. Oil on canvas, 27 by 40 inches. Estimate: $30,000-$50,000.
O’Brien’s connoisseurship led him to collect the very best carvings, by individual makers, that are also considered pinnacle decoys by region. Many consider the Charles E. “Shang” Wheeler (1872–1949) Canada goose to be not only the most famous decoy by Wheeler but also one of the most important Connecticut decoys known to exist. The ruddy duck by Lee Dudley (1860–1942) of North Carolina is one of the finest southern decoys known to exist. Additionally, the Dust Jacket Plover by famed Massachusetts carver A. Elmer Crowell (1862–1952) is the exact carving pictured on the cover of the seminal publication American Bird Decoys by William J. Mackey, Jr.
- Arthur Burdett Frost (1851–1928), Bay Snipe Shooting, 1900. Watercolor, 16½ by 25¼ inches. Estimate: $30,000-$50,000. Pictured in Harper’s Weekly.
O’Brien’s impressive collection of paintings and prints includes masterworks by Frank W. Benson (1862–1951), Ogden Pleissner (1905–1983), Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896–1969), Roland Clark (1874–1957), and A.F. Tait (1819–1905). The collection also houses some of the finest J.J. Audubon (1785–1851) engravings, including the Virginian Partridge and Canvas-backed Duck, among others.
Highlighting the fine art in the collection is Pleissner’s The Run Downstream, a prize oil by the noted sporting artist. Aside from Blue Boat on the St. Anne, an atmospheric oil painting in the collection of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, The Run Downstream is among the artist’s most important salmon fishing works. O’Brien was good friends with Ogden Pleissner, who would stop and see O’Brien on his way to New York galleries, giving the collector the opportunity to acquire some of the artist’s best works before they hit the broader market.
Sessions I and II of the Donal C. O’Brien, Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, consisting of approximately 200 lots, will take place at Hotel 1620 in Plymouth, MA on July 27, in conjunction with Copley’s Sporting Sale, which will be held on July 28. A full-color hardbound collector’s edition catalogue will be available. Online bidding will be available through Copley’s industry-leading app, CopleyLive, and through Bidsquare. Copley Fine Art Auctions is the world’s leading American sporting art auction company. Located south of Boston in Hingham, MA, Copley specializes in antique decoys and 19th- and 20th-century American, sporting, and wildlife paintings.
To view more work by Aiden Lassell Ripley, please click here.
To view more work by Ogden Pleissner, please click here.
To view more work by Frank W. Benson, please click here.
To view more work by J.J. Audubon, please click here.
