Robert Fraser Sporting & Southern Art: Inaugural SEWE vendor
- cdavis884
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
By Ford Walpole
Robert (Bob) Fraser reflects on the birth of the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE), noting that Dicky Trotter was among the early organizers of the event. “Dicky was a businessman and a visionary. He had been to the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland, and he believed we could start a similar event here. He reached out to Van Smith, Dick Coen and me because of our knowledge of duck decoys. Our contribution to SEWE was helping recruit carvers, dealers and an auction house. We contacted Richard Oliver, who specialized in decoys, and Oliver helped gather the collectors,” Fraser says.
When the first SEWE was held in 1983, Richard Oliver set up in the old Shriners’ Hall on East Bay, which is now part of the Carolina Yacht Club. That year, Bob’s booth was located in the Francis Marion Hotel. He still has the commemorative gold-colored pen given to the vendors and contributors; on it is the original acronym SWE (Southeastern Wildlife Exposition) and the year.
Fraser grew up in Georgetown, the home of the Caines Brothers, whose decoys are some of the rarest and most expensive. Bob was not a hunter, nor would he become interested in decoys until later. “When I was in college at the University of South Carolina,” he says, “I started collecting South Carolina Dispensary bottles–old liquor bottles sold by the state from 1893 until 1907,” he says. Collecting remained a hobby while he worked full-time, first as a truant officer and later with IBM.
In 1976, Fraser opened his business, The End of the Line, near the market in a caboose he acquired from the Town of Mount Pleasant. He set the caboose in a lot owned by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at South Market and East Bay Street, and he eventually added a baggage car. “I had a general gift line,” he says, “but because of the friendships I had with Van Smith and Dick Coen, and my own interests in decoys, the emphasis of my shop soon moved more into sporting art,” he says.
A chance stroll through the market helped kindle Fraser’s passion for decoys. “Back in those days, you could find some good stuff — such as old bottles — in the market,” he says. “One day, I was walking through there, and on a table were three decoys: a pintail, a mallard, and a bluebill. I recognized them as the work of Elmer Crowell, a premier carver out of Massachusetts. A lady was interested in one of the decoys, but she put it down once she found out it cost $50. I paid $100 for all three decoys, and I have never gotten as good a deal as I did that day!” Fraser laughs.
Bob had heard that Van Smith, who hunted ducks at Rice Hope Plantation, was also interested in decoys, so he called Smith to show him the Crowell finds. “A month after the visit,” Fraser recalls, “Van invited me back and said to bring the oversized mallard hen. When I walked in, he showed me the mate to that hen and a blue-winged teal, which was also carved by Crowell. We knew the mallard drake was the mate to my hen because it was also oversized. Van said he wanted me to have the drake and sold it to me for what he had paid for it. And later on, I traded my Crowell pintail with Dick Coen for a Mason Decoy Factory premier canvasback,” he says.
Early duck decoys were strictly utilitarian, Fraser explains. “The Caines Brothers could not afford to buy decoys to hunt with, so they had to carve their own. Some people would just carve out a block of wood with a simple head,” he says. Other woodworkers, such as Elmer Crowell, carved ducks preening and included further detail.
“The better the detail and the better the quality of the paint, the more valuable the decoy,” Fraser says. “Most ducks will decoy to black ducks, canvasbacks, and mallards, so those decoys were more popular. There wasn’t as much of a need for carvers to make wood ducks, teal, and mergansers, so those decoys are much rarer,” he says.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the majority of decoys were produced by hunters and carvers in small shops. Mason Decoy Factory was one of the few large-scale decoy manufacturers, and despite being mass-produced, their products were known to have fine detail and high-quality paint.
In 1990, ILA sold the property at South Market and East Bay, and Fraser was forced to move his business. He donated the caboose to the Charleston County School District, and for years, it sat on the grounds of Simmons Elementary School. Bob set up shop at Coleman Boulevard and Houston Northcutt in Mount Pleasant, before eventually transitioning to a home operation.
For the past ten years, Fraser has gravitated from decoys and sporting art to Southern art.
“During the latter part of my dealing business, I watched decoys get more and more expensive, and when I saw one sell for $50,000, I realized decoys were out of my league,” he says. He now focuses on Charleston Renaissance artists such as Alice R.H. Smith, Elizabeth O’Neal Verner and Alfred Hutty. He deals strictly with deceased artists. “When you work with a contemporary artist, you need a gallery, you need to hold shows and you have to keep the artist happy,” Bob points out. “I hate to admit it, but I make my money just like a lawyer — on death, debt and divorce. These unfortunate circumstances bring a lot of art into the market,” he says.
In addition, Fraser is interested in old Edgefield pottery from Edgefield County, South Carolina. Just as with early decoys, this historic pottery was produced for practical purposes. “People needed containers for lard, rice and liquids,” he says. “Being an art dealer, when you find a vessel with designs, it makes it more interesting. These craftsmen took pride in their work, which is very appealing.”
When you visit Bob and Linda Fraser’s Snee Farm home, you feel like you are in a gallery. A swan on the hearth was carved by Grayson Chesser in 1988 upon the birth of the couple’s son, Porter. An end table boasts a display of shorebirds. Among these are a primitive shorebird carved by an unknown James Island sportsman, a curlew by Patrick O’Rear, and another curlew by Van Smith, who took up carving during his retirement. Scattered throughout the display are old peep whistles, which were once used to call shorebirds.
Wildlife art adorns the walls. Besides the Audubon prints, there are a number of original paintings by Charleston’s own Edward von Siebold Dingle. The artist grew up on a plantation near the Santee Delta and was influenced by the region’s abundant waterfowl. In 1927, upon his marriage to Marie G. Ball, Edward Dingle moved to Middleburg Plantation, which is considered the oldest plantation home in South Carolina. Gesturing to Dingle’s bald eagle, Bob declares: “That is one of his masterpieces–in my estimation.” In all, Fraser has two dozen Dingle originals, and for the past several years, he has been working on putting together a book on this talented and accomplished local artist.
“Collecting is a darn sickness,” Fraser laughs. “I am trying to sell off my decoys and art, but just last month, I convinced myself I needed to buy a piece of pottery. A collector has to rationalize — about how ‘I do not need it, and do not have a place for it, but I do want it, and I will find a place for it’!”
More than the artwork he has bought and sold, Fraser treasures “the great and lasting friendships that began through my work. I have had a great time going to places and handling and selling birds and artwork and forming friendships over the years,” he says. He points to a gentleman from Minnesota, from whom he bought his earliest sporting paintings. “I wouldn’t have known him without the camaraderie of collecting decoys over 40 years,” he says. The same sentiment applies to Van Smith and Dick Coen, who shared and helped foster Bob’s appreciation for decoys.
For many years, Fraser set up booths at four shows a year: SEWE, the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, and events in Virginia Beach and Chicago. Bob, now 81, will have a booth at SEWE this year, which likely will be his final year at the event for which he has been a fixture since its inception. This year, he will be set up in the Marriott across from Brittlebank and beside his friend Tom Reed. Fraser will have for sale sporting prints, etchings and Southern prints by Lassell Ripley, Frank Benson and Roland Clark. He has several Clark etchings inspired by Cooper River hunts at Mulberry Plantation.
“To me, what has allowed SEWE to grow is the fact that when people attend, they find a plethora of things to see and do. There is something for everyone! The Expo has expanded and evolved to the point that it is a highlight of the Charleston scene,” Fraser says. As you explore SEWE, be sure to visit Bob Fraser’s Sporting & Southern Art and learn from this entertaining and knowledgeable icon of the Charleston art community! And, if you have an original Edward Dingle painting or know someone who does, please contact Bob so that he may include an image of it in his forthcoming book; you may reach him at rfraserart@att.net.
Ford Walpole lives and writes on John’s Island and is the author of many articles on the outdoors. He teaches English at James Island Charter High School and the College of Charleston and may be reached at fordwalpole@gmail.com.
