Copley Winter Sale 2026

Copley Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary With An All-Star Lineup at the Winter Sale 2026

As Copley Fine Art Auctions celebrates its 20th year in business in 2026, the firm will host its annual Winter Sale on February 20 and 21. Consisting of approximately 640 lots, this major Sporting art auction will offer buyers the opportunity to acquire antique and contemporary decoys, decorative carvings, American Sporting, Wildlife, and Western paintings, prints, folk art, Americana, bronze sculptures, and fishing collectables from curated collections and estates.

The live-streamed auction will utilize phone, absentee, and internet bidding on three different online platforms, including Copley Live, the industry’s first app. Copley’s veteran auctioneer, Peter Cocculuto, will once again be on the podium with the gavel. The auction will begin at 10 am on both Friday and Saturday, February 20 and 21. Leading up to this 2-day auction, Copley will be conducting a major traveling featured preview with specialist talks, live artist demonstrations, and roadshow appraisals at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) in Charleston, SC, February 13–15, 2026. The sale will also be available for preview by appointment at Copley’s gallery in Pembroke, MA, from January 20–February 4, 2026.

Copley owner Stephen O’Brien Jr. offers, “We had over 3,500 people come through our featured preview at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, over the course of the four-day Waterfowl Festival in November. It was exciting to see such a positive reaction from the crowds.”

The Winter Sale 2026 offerings are headlined by the Robert S. Doochin Collection of Sporting, Wildlife, and Western Art, as well as decoys from the Estate of Henry Bishop, the Masterworks of the Illinois River Collection, the Matt Geis Collection, the Robert Metcalf Collection, and a private estate from Florida, among others.

Mr. Doochin, the prior owner of the one-hundred-year-old firm American Paper and Twine, was meticulous in what he collected and his art collection is a virtual “Who’s Who,” including major original works by Frederic Remington, William de la Montagne Cary, E. I. Couse, Carl Rungius, Eustace Ziegler, Philip R. Goodwin, Frank Hoffman, Frank Stick, W. H. D. Koerner, R. Farrington Elwell, A. F. Tait, A. B. Frost, Ogden Pleissner, Richard Bishop, Percival Rosseau, Edmund Osthaus, J. M. Tracy, Gustav Muss-Arnolt, Richard LeBarre Goodwin, Bob Kuhn, David Maass, and Lynn Bogue Hunt, among others.

The top lot in the sale is In the Jungle – Tigers, a Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert oil on board ($100/125,000). The top estimated lot in the Doochin Collection is a large-scale oil on canvas by Eanger Irving Couse entitled The Hunter’s Return ($75/125,000), depicting a Native American after a successful turkey hunt. Another Western work on offer from the Doochin Collection is Little Batiste ($60/90,000), a Frederic Remington gouache and ink wash on paper. This dramatic work from Harper’s Weekly epitomizes the stories of the American West and living by one’s wits. Other highlights of his collection include a Philip R. Goodwin oil titled Bruin’s Dilemma ($60/90,000), an oil of Dogs and Quail ($50/80,000) by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, and After the Buffalo Hunt ($50/70,000), a large-scale oil by William de la Montagne Cary. These are just five of the fifty exceptional works from the Robert S. Doochin Collection of Sporting, Wildlife, and Western Art.

Mr. Henry Bishop was a good friend of legendary decoy collector Dr. Peter J. Muller Jr., and there is a substantial overlap between the two decoy collections. Both from Atlanta, the Muller and Bishop Collections are known for their near-mint birds by top makers, including Elmer Crowell, Joseph Lincoln, the Webster and Folger families of Nantucket, George Boyd, the Fox Rig, Obediah Verity, William Southard, Thomas Gelston, Charles Sumner Bunn, Dan Lake Leeds, Harry V. Shourds, and the Mason Decoy Factory. Leading the offerings from the Bishop Estate is a willet by Charles Sumner Bunn ($15/25,000), a red knot by Obediah Verity ($15/25,000), and a golden plover by Nantucket’s Webster family ($10/15,000).

Copley owner Stephen O’Brien Jr. reports, “We would have been delighted to sell the Doochin and Bishop Collections alone; however, the rest of this year’s Winter Sale line-up is top notch. Two of Frank Benson’s very best watercolors, Duck Hunters ($60/90,000) and Flying Woodcock ($20/30,000), one of Rosseau’s most famous oils, Bill’s Covey ($60/90,000), a grand ruffed grouse oil by A. L. Ripley ($30/50,000), and one of the best Lynn Bogue Hunt line-ups bolster the all-star paintings.

“On the decoy and bird carving front, two pintail hen carvings top the list: the iconic Dave “Umbrella” Watson Pintail ($80/120,000) and a preening pintail by Charles H. Perdew ($40/60,000) from the Masterworks of the Illinois River Collection. An extremely rare Canada Goose by Jim Schmiedlin, one of only four known, will also cross the block ($50/70,000). Seventy-four Elmer Crowell lots in the auction are headlined by the Underwood Wing-Up Greater Yellowlegs ($30/50,000) and a rare standing mallard ($25/45,000). A Bickel-Rig Turning Black Duck ($30/50,000) by Ira Hudson, the Ward Brothers Turned-Head Bishop’s Head Black Duck Drake ($30/50,000), an iconic Gus Wilson eider hen ($25/30,000), “Shang” Wheeler pinnacle pieces, and exceptional contemporary works by Mark McNair, Frank Finney, Bill Gibian, Cameron McIntyre, Steve Weaver, and others round out the full cast. If Sporting art and decoy collectors can’t find pieces in this auction to gravitate towards, I can’t help them!”

Since its inception twenty years ago, Copley has set world records for many of the top wildlife and sporting artists: Ogden Pleissner, Aiden Lassell Ripley, A. B. Frost, Edmund H. Osthaus, Lynn Bogue Hunt, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Chet Reneson, Richard Bishop, Thomas Aquinas Daly, Gustav Muss-Arnolt, Ewoud de Groot, and William Goadby Lawrence, among others.

Maintaining a focus on quality over quantity and a strict adherence to accurate descriptions and condition reports, Copley continues to be the “go-to” firm for discerning collectors. Additionally, all of Copley’s results are verified on online platforms, giving collectors tremendous peace of mind.

Previews will be available at Copley’s gallery in Pembroke, Massachusetts, by live video calls, and by arrangement at Copley’s Featured Preview at the Southeastern Wildlife Expo (SEWE) in Charleston, South Carolina. Images of the lots on offer at the Winter Sale 2026 will be available on the online bidding catalogs. Print catalogs can be purchased by calling the gallery at 617-536-0030, by clicking on this link: https://www.copleyart.com/auction-catalogs/p/the-winter-sale-2026 or by emailing info@copleyart.com.

For additional high-resolution images or more information, please contact chelsie@copleyart.com.