Collectors of decoy ducks flock to St. Charles, Ill. this week for the 46th National Antique Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show. Collectors buy and trade at the show, but the most visible test of the recovering decoy market will be the annual auction that Maryland-based Guyette & Schmidt will hold later this week. A highlight will be a swan crafted in the 1930’s by Virginia boat-builder Charles Birch. It’s expected to sell for $125,000-$140,000.
The market for decoys reached a high in 2007, when an 1870’s model of a red-merganser sold for a record $856,000. A year later, the market for decoys plunged, as it did for so many other categories of collectibles. “We used to have $14-million years,” said Guyette’s president Gary Guyette, ‘but now we have $6-million years.” On April 28-29, collectors will learn if this is one of them.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
