INTRODUCTION by Stephen B. O’Brien, Jr.
My uncle, Don, was a force. He was a sportsman, a birder, a conservationist, and a collector. He was a mentor, a friend, and a strong leader who never walked into a meeting that he did not want to run. Don flourished in virtually every arena he entered. An avid duck hunter, he was a crack shot as well as a master dog trainer. Don shot driven grouse on the moors of Scotland and he hunted quail with Presidents. He and his wife, Katie, went birding around the globe, including Costa Rica, Antarctica, Africa, and the Galapagos. He was an observant student of the natural world and put his keen senses to use in the artistry of his bird carving, twice winning the US National Amatuer Championship. A world-class angler, in 1982 Don set an IGFA world record, landing a fortyseven pound Atlantic salmon on the Grand Cascapedia. Concerned about the decline of Atlantic salmon stocks, he went on to chair the Atlantic salmon Federation for over a decade. Fittingly, over twenty years later, Don landed and released an even larger salmon on the very same river. An artist through and through, Don’s mediums were numerous and varied, ranging from the realism of family photography to the vernacular realm of decoy carving. Don and Katie utilized the interior of their house as their greatest canvas. Anyone who has visited the O’Brien home is immediately struck by not only the depth of their collection, but also the tasteful manner in which it is displayed. Carefully selected objects grace their daily living spaces in a down-to-earth fashion. Their historic home, tucked away in the woods along the Mill River in New Canaan, proved to be the ideal counterbalance for Don, away from the pressures of practicing law at Rockefeller Center. During the early days of decoy collecting, Don was amongst the first to recognize decoys as a true American art form, rather than simply utility objects. Following in Joel Barber’s footsteps, he was one of the most important early source collectors. He acquired many carvings from their original context, ensuring impeccable provenance. Consequently his collection, built and curated over six decades, is virtually unrivaled in its breadth and quality. The collection totals over 500 objects and constitutes a remarkably complete array of classic sporting art and decoys. Considered by many to be the finest decoy and American sporting art collection ever assembled, this marks the first time it has been shown publicly since 1981, when selections of the collection were exhibited at the Museum of American Folk Art in Manhattan.
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