DENVER, Pa. — A Lancaster County auction announced it has been commissioned to sell a renowned collection of antique and vintage fishing lures compiled by Wayne Edens.
Morphy Auctions said a three-part auction series is planned, with a debut auction slated for December 10, and two more dates to follow next year.
Each sale will feature 600 to 700 lots, Morphy Auctions said.
Described by Morphy's Auctions as "the largest, most comprehensive and historically important collection of its type ever to come to the public marketplace," the Edens assemblage contains many exquisitely rare examples, including an elusive, 100% original Heddon “factory board” frog lure, hand-carved circa 1898.
Fishing lure expert Scott Jedd, who is cataloging the auction’s contents, confirmed that the Heddon frog is one of eight such lures – or baits, as they are also called – that was personally crafted by James Heddon, founder of the Heddon Company, and subsequently exhibited on a display board at the factory.
“In the world of lures, those eight frogs are as rare and coveted as Faberge eggs,” Jedd remarked. “They represent the original American wood baits.”
In 1977, Clyde A Harbin Sr, an outdoorsman, author and fishing lure archivist known as “The Bassman,” was invited by Heddon to visit the factory and declutter the board by removing any baits that were not Heddon productions. The eight frogs were present on the board both before and after the board was thinned out, and were photographed many times, Morphy's Auctions said.
Harbin would later write a book titled Heddon Historical Footprints in which he details where each of the eight frogs ended up. Today, it is believed that one of them is held in the Bass Pro Shops corporate collection, a few others are privately owned, and yet another may be in an aquarium’s collection in Oklahoma.
The frog lure in Wayne Edens’ collection was acquired from Dudley Murphy (1940-2022), co-founder of the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club. Murphy obtained the lure directly from the Heddon factory, according to Morphy's Auctions.
In addition to its unbroken line of provenance, Edens’ lure has been definitively photo-matched to one of the original eight “board” examples. It will make its first-ever auction appearance on December 10 with a $30,000-$60,000 estimate, although Jedd suggests that “if the wind is blowing in the right direction, the frog could leap over that estimate and sell for $80,000, maybe even more.”
“Being entrusted with the Wayne Edens collection is a great honor for Morphy’s," said auction owner Dan Morphy. "Wayne’s collection is, in a word, astonishing, and contains many special-order and one-of-a-kind lures – some in their original picture boxes. Many have never before been offered at public auction. In addition to Heddons, there are rare productions by Immell Chippewa, Shakespeare, Haskell and scores of other top brands. We estimate the collection’s value to be around three million dollars.”
Morphy Auctions representatives will be set up at the November 7-9 Savannah Southern Classic Antique Tackle Show co-produced by the Carolina Antique Tackle Collectors and Florida Antique Tackle Collectors clubs. They look forward to discussing highlights of the Edens collection with show attendees.
