ST. MICHAELS -- Homely and slightly worn from decades of handling, the mottled wooden bird might not have gotten a second glance sitting on a flea market table.
But at an Eastern Shore auction last month, that bird soared above the rest, with a stratospheric price of $830,000 - the most ever paid for a decoy.
The identity of the winning bidder, a collector from Connecticut, is unknown. But in the growing field of decoy collecting, the auctioneer is not.
Guyette and Schmidt Inc., with offices in this Chesapeake Bay town and in Maine, has been getting top dollar for America's rarest birds, from the record-setting black-bellied plover to a preening pintail duck for $801,500 to a hissing Canada goose for $605,000.
"Without a doubt, they sell more than anyone else and have been that leading force for at least 10 years," says Joe Engers, publisher of Decoy, the nation's top magazine in the field. "They are the biggest barometer of the decoy market."
The firm is responsible for nearly three-quarters of decoy auction sales in the U.S. In two decades, Gary Guyette and Frank Schmidt have sold $95 million in wooden birds, a number that prompted Sotheby's and Christie's to join forces with them on auctions.
Prices skyrocket
"Did I think there would be a $830,000 [decoy] 30 years ago? Oh, Lord, not in my wildest dreams," Schmidt says. "In 1972, one went for $10,000, and everyone looked around and said, `He'll never make his money back.' In 2000, it sold for just under $500,000."
That wooden birds once used to lure waterfowl are now luring six-figure bids should not come as a surprise. Collectors have pushed up the value of everything from antique weather vanes (top auction price, $5.8 million) to French candlesticks ($2 million) to the oldest hockey stick ($2.2 million).
The collecting frenzy has enveloped American folk art, which includes decoys. It is becoming an increasingly active collector's field, with an October auction at Sotheby's hitting a record $7 million in sales.
"Relatively speaking, decoys are a pittance," Engers says. "All you need is three or four people bidding for the good stuff. There's a lot of pressure on the tip of the pyramid."
Guyette agrees. "Decoys are becoming more and more of an investment. Prices have doubled in the last four years and there's no end in sight."
A duck picked up at a flea market a few years back for $100 brought $42,000 at a recent auction. A carving bought in 1992 for $22,000 sold this year for $250,000.
