"Lothrop Holmes" Ruddy Turnstone

Lothrop Holmes (1824-1899)  came from a family of ship builders in Kingston, Massachusetts.  He was not a commercial decoy maker, carving most of his decoys for his own use, thus there are only a small number of his decoys that survived.  He carved mostly Merganser and Old Squaw decoys and only three varieties of shorebirds, which are Ruddy Turnstones, Black-bellied Plovers and Yellowlegs. He was also one of the first decoy makers to utilize canvas over  wood slat frames on decoy bodies.

A quote from the January, 2000 Sotheby’s auction catalog for the Dr. James McCleery collection sums up Holmes’ decoys perfectly:  “Holmes was a masterful painter, and the sinuous, stylized lines of his plumage paint patterns perfectly complement the flowing forms of his carvings.”

The Ruddy Turnstone offered here is my version of the Holmes classic Ruddy Turnstone that has graced the covers of several decoy books and is mentioned in any discussion of the greatest shorebirds ever carved.  Originally this gorgeous bird was in the collection of my old friend Doc Starr, where I saw this bird in person for the first time and, once again, thought I was holding the Holy Grail when Doc handed it to me.

Dr. McCleery purchased this decoy at auction in 1986 for $67,000, which was an unheard of price for a shorebird and it was obviously a record price. It remained in Dr. McCleery’s collection until 2000 when it sold at Sotheby’s for $470,000. That was certainly a better investment than Enron & WorldCom!

This decoy is actual size with a split tail and tack eyes. It is about 8 inches in length, is aged just a bit with a nice patina and has my initials carved under the tail.

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