The Sporting Sale 2025
Copley’s Sporting Sale 2025 surpassed its $2.6 million high estimate, achieving a 95% sell-through rate and setting many new world records once again. New bidders continued to enter the market, and every category saw lively bidding, from antique and contemporary decoys to decorative carvings, paintings, prints, bronzes, fishing reels, and folk art. The number of new buyers was impressive!
The top decoy lot was the Purnell-Hudson Merganser Pair, Ira Hudson (1873–1949), $144,000.
The top fishing reel in the sale was The H. M. Royal Fin-Nor 15/0 Reel, $17,220.
Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), Flying Grouse, watercolor, 21 by 30 in., $49,200.
Frank Finney, Life After Death, Woodpecker Tree Mechanical Bank, $58,425.
Lynn Bogue Hunt (1878–1960), The "Pilar" Fights a Blue Marlin Off Cuba North Coast, Ernest Hemingway, oil on canvas, 22 by 18 in., $126,000. This painting came within $500 of breaking the artist's previous world record set by Copley in 2007.
Ogden M. Pleissner (1905-1983), Le Cran Serré—Moisie River, watercolor, 18 by 28 in., $72,000.
Capt. Charles C. Osgood (1820-1886), The Starr Osgood Merganser Hen, $78,000.
Mark McNair, The Stavis “High-Tri” Merganser Pair, $45,600, setting a new world record for the maker.