Arthur Burdett Frost (1851-1928), Bay Snipe Shooting

Lot 204

About Seller

20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States

Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more

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About Auction

The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1 by Copley Fine Art Auctions

Live

The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Feb 20, 2026

Set Reminder 2026-02-20 10:00:00 2026-02-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/copley/the-winter-sale-2026-day-1-22120 Lots 1-300 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com

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Lot Description

Arthur Burdett Frost (1851-1928)
Bay Snipe Shooting, 1900
signed and dated "A.B. Frost. 1900" lower right
watercolor, 16 1/4 by 25 1/2 in.

This important Frost depicts two competent shorebird hunters crouched in a blind, their bag of birds is piling up behind as they await the next flight. Frost skillfully depicts subtle details such as the water jug, lunch basket, guns, and shorebird decoys. His attention to detail is remarkable, going so far as to place a shotgun shell in the marsh in the lower right. It served as the centerfold illustration in the April 28, 1900 issue of "Harper's Weekly."

"Another feature of the work of Mr. Frost is that it is essentially and peculiarly American. The books that he has interpreted by means of his illustrations are concerned with people in almost every part of the Republic - New England, the South, the Middle West, and the Pacific Slope - but the characters he draws are always true to their environment; they belong to the time and the place, and could belong nowhere else; and they all show the influence of the American spirit and breathe in an atmosphere of American humor." - Joel Chandler Harris

A. B. Frost was born in Philadelphia in 1851, but spent his most prolific years in New Jersey. Considered one of the great illustrators of the "Golden Age of American Illustration," he illustrated more than ninety books and produced thousands of illustrations for "Harper's Weekly," "Scribner's," and "Life" magazines. Frost's illustrative work chronicles the mood and details of the daily life of farmers, hunters, and fishermen, as well as barnyards and pastoral motifs.

By 1876 he was on Harper's staff working on many books, including "Tom Sawyer," "Uncle Remus," and "Mr. Dooley." He also illustrated Theodore Roosevelt's sporting book, "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman."

Frost was an ardent sportsman who spent his summers and autumns fishing, rowing, and hunting ducks and snipe. He is best known for his hunting and shooting prints which capture the drama of sport in realistic, detailed settings. Frost lived much of his life at his estate, Moneysunk, in Convent Station, New Jersey.

Provenance: Bud Dominic Collection, by descent
Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection, acquired from the above
Robert S. Doochin Collection, acquired Copley Fine Art Auctions, The Sporting Sale 2017, lot 145

Literature: "Harper's Weekly," April 28, 1900, pp. 390-391, illustrated.
Arthur Burdett Frost, "A Book of Drawings," New York, NY, 1904, p. ix.
Copley Fine Art Auctions, "The Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, Sessions I-II," July 27, 2017, pp. 204-205 and inside back cover spread, lot 145, illustrated.

Condition

Please email condition report requests to leah@copleyart.com.
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