Donal O鈥橞rien was 10 years old when he collected his first decoy: a female broadbill pilfered from his grandfather鈥檚 hunting gear. As the decades passed, the Rockefeller lawyer accumulated an astonishing total of , which he kept mostly in his Connecticut home, along with a curated collection of avian art. Later in life he taught himself to carve decoys by hand, joining the long-held American tradition that was commemorated through his collection.
But O鈥橞rien鈥檚 legacy didn鈥檛 end with his stockpiles of artifacts and art: Before he died in 2013, the septuagenarian spent decades at the forefront of bird conservation. He steered the 探花精选 as its chairman for 15 years, founded the international nonprofit , and raised millions of dollars for the Important Bird Areas program. But as much as he fought to keep birds safe in the wild, he also worked to bring their likenesses home. Now, others can share in that appreciation as well; at the end of next month, 150 carvings and paintings from O鈥橞rien鈥檚 collection are being sold by .
Decoys date back centuries in America's hunting history, when it was discovered that manmade dummies could be used to coax birds into shooting range. The practice , who wove reeds into the shapes of floating birds. By the 1800s, pioneers were setting out rafts of wooden replicas to attract entire flocks of ducks at once. But in the 1910s, banned large, market-scale hunting and the interstate sales of birds it relied on, reducing the need for decoys. Nevertheless, they鈥檙e still used by sport hunters, but are typically made of plastic to be lightweight and more durable.
Wooden birds haven鈥檛 completely disappeared, however: today, they鈥檙e considered works of art. Over time, they've become more lifelike, not only in how closely they resemble a bird, but also in how well they float. The best decoys are carved to sit head-up naturally, rather than relying on weights to stay upright in the water. Amateur decoy-carving contests have also become popular, sometimes attracting . Meanwhile, individual auctions for prized decoys have topped .
O鈥橞rien was amassing carvings in the 1950s and 鈥60s鈥攖he earliest days of the market. 鈥淏ack when he started, it was really the formation of decoy collecting as we know it,鈥 says Stephen O鈥橞rien, Jr., the head of Copley Fine Art Auctions and Donal鈥檚 nephew. 鈥淗e was buying rigs of decoys from the carvers themselves [and] from the families or heirs of carvers.鈥
But Stephen says his uncle was the last remaining collector from that generation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really the end of an era,鈥 he says. (More information about the auction is .)
Nowadays, the craft has a different calling: conserving at-risk species around the world. Many seabirds, including puffins and albatross, don鈥檛 like nesting alone鈥攕o managers use decoys to seed new colonies, coaxing the birds into nesting around their statuesque neighbors. It鈥檚 just the sort of thing O鈥橞rien would have appreciated: birds of wild feather and sculpted wood, flocking together.
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探花精选 is a nonprofit working to save birds and the places they need. To support our work and conservation efforts,
