Elmer Crowell Decoy Tops $200,000

It took $207,000 to buy a bufflehead drake decoy carved about 1910-1912 by Elmer Crowell (1862-1952). The amazingly high price (the estimate was $125,000 to $175,000) paid at a Decoys Unlimited auction on Cape Cod, Mass., wasn’t even a record for a Crowell carving. Two of his birds, a pintail drake and a Canada goose, each sold for $1.3 million in 2007. Crowell started carving decoys for hunters to use, but by about 1918 he was selling decoys as decorations. Prices for…