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The Lure of Decoys Stories & Photos by: Carol J. Perry As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, January 2009 Decoy collectors like to joke that people are easier to lure with decoys than birds are. It may be true. For years now, dedicated fanciers of these artful artifacts have slogged along seashores, crawled under abandoned docks and inside old boathouses, always hoping to find a long-lost decoy among the shoreline flotsam and jetsam.
At the same time, in ever increasing numbers, decoys are showing up at antiques shows and auctions. In April of 2008, an Illinois decoy auction grossed a whopping $3,568,559.00! A rare representation of a ruddy duck made a world auction record when it sold for $269,000 and a handsome mallard drake brought $137,000. Clearly, the new owners of these fabulous fowl are not planning to use them for duck hunting.
Today's decoy collectors have a wide range of decoy types to choose from. Some old time decoys are simply rendered silhouettes of birds, while others are painstakingly carved, realistically colored works of art. In fact, decoys are a true American folk art, which, along with basketry, share a place as the very earliest native American crafts.
Early Indians thought up ingenious ways to make lifelike replicas to lure wildfowl. Some wonderful ones made from grass, stones and feathers dating to around the 10th century - have been found by archeologists in Nevada.
(Southwestern Native Americans, including the Paiute, still prepare similar decoys.)
Eighteenth-century New Englanders borrowed the idea from the Indians and before long had adapted the technique to their own hunting methods. They generally carved birds from white cedar or pine. These early birds make fascinating collectibles today, although they bear only a crude resemblance to any real wildfowl. However, they apparently worked, luring young migrant birds from Northern breeding grounds.
During the nineteenth century duck and goose were popular table fare, and professional "market gunmen" used to set out hundreds of decoys to tempt migrating birds within shooting range. There was no limit to the number of birds a hunter could shoot, and back in those days the flocks of waterfowl migrating between South America and Canada were enormous.
The routes chosen by various flocks are called "flyways," and there are four major ones: The Atlantic Coast, the Mississippi Valley, the Pacific Coast and the broad route known as "Central," between the Mississippi and the Rockies.
Collectors often classify decoys by which flyway they were designed for. Species and hunting techniques tend to vary from flyway to flyway. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries thousands of decoys were produced, most of them along the Atlantic Coast and Mississippi River flyways, where hunting was particularly intense.
By the time the 1920s rolled around a number of species had been wiped out completely by overzealous hunters. Commercial bird hunts were outlawed and sportsman shooters were heavily regulated.
Lots of carvers who had specialized in decoys turned talented hands to other pursuits. But a few carvers continued to make working decoys and some of those highly prized by collectors were made as recently as the 1950s.
There are around fifty different species of duck, goose and pigeon represented by decoys. Some, like mallards and canvas back are fairly common, while shoveler and ruddy ducks are harder to find. Collectors recognize two main types of decoys. One is the "floater" type and the other is known as a "stick-up". A stick-up is a decoy which is mounted on a stake.
These, logically enough, usually represent shore birds while the floating variety are ducks and geese. One variation on the stick-up is a "Shadow" which is a simple two-dimensional silhouette of a bird. Stick-ups are most prevalent along the Atlantic flyway. Some much sought-after ones are curlews, plovers, and yellow-legs, produced by Cape Cod, Massachusetts carvers.
During the years when market gunning created a big demand for decoys, factory-produced models made an appearance. One, Harry A. Stevens Company, of Weedsport, New York, made a lot of them. Stevens decoys are readily identified because the company name was stenciled, (and sometimes branded) onto each one. A couple of Michigan firms, the Mason Decoy Factory and the Jasper N. Dodge Company, both of Detroit, made products which bore distinguishing swirls of textured paint.
Paint condition is an important and often fairly reliable indication of age. Old working decoys are naturally apt to be weatherbeaten and lacking some of the paint. These are signs of prior service and are not objectionable to many collectors. Water stains are commonly found on floaters, and do not diminish a good decoy's value. However, the paint of Midwestern decoys which were used in fresh water is generally in better shape than is the paint on decoys which have endured the rigors of the salty Atlantic coast. The old market gunner's decoys saw a lot of service, and they were generally treated to a new coat of paint every couple of years. The layers of checked, cracked paint offers a certain charm to some collectors, in addition to verifying significant age. Original paint on a decoy adds to the value.
Collectors rarely repaint one. Old paint and good form are the characteristics collectors look for. Of the two though, form is the more important. No amount of paint will make up for poor proportions.
Sometimes a name or date is stamped on a decoy. Usually this indicates who the owner was. . . not the carver.
Carvers for the most part didn't sign their work. Who knew that these utilitarian objects would someday be avidly sought by collectors - with no thought of using them for their original purpose? Some carvers left us some clues which help to identify their work. Lem and Steve Ward of Maryland are regarded as two of the art's greatest masters. They liked to make their ducks with heads turned to the side. It is said that Lem Ward used to take his paints right to the duck blind. After he'd shot a duck he'd mix his colors right then so that he'd get the exact hues. Mark Whipple of Louisiana favored hollow ducks with oval lead weights for ballast.
Captain Charles Osgood of Salem, an immigrant cabinet maker, was one of the first decoy makers in America, His Canada Geese, with hollow bodies and detachable heads are museum pieces and among the most famous in the world. Charles Hart of Gloucester, Massachusetts carved such lifelike birds that collectors recognize his unsigned artistry and often part with $10,000 or more for one prime example.
Massachusetts artists Joe Lincoln and A. Elmer Crowell are noted for the graceful, lifelike heads and necks on the birds they crafted. In 2003, a preening pintail drake by Crowel of Cape Cod sold at auction for $801,500. Then in 2007, a 19th century Merganser Hen by Lothrop Holmes of Kingston, MA, sold for a record $856,000
Few carvers today produce decoys for use in the water or on poles along the shore. Some, however, are producing some handsome ornamental wood sculptures of game birds. As yet these haven't been widely collected, although somewhere, some canny collector is undoubtedly stashing away signed examples against the day when these too will be hunted by collectors. Sidebar
If you'd like to see some first rate displays of carved decoys, there are some fine ones at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich in Sandwich, Massachusetts and the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.
There are some magazines and newsletters devoted to carving and collecting decoys. Decoy Magazine is a bimonthly, edited by decoy expert Joe Engers (PO. Box 787, Lewes, DE 19958. Telephone 302-644-9001. www.decoymag.com)
There are several books about decoys available. Collecting Antique Bird Decoys is by Carl Luckey & Russell E. Lewis. The Great Book of Wildfowl Decoys is edited by Joe Engers.
The world's largest auction firm specializing in decoys is Guyette & Schmidt in Farmington, Maine (207-778-6256 or www.guyetteandschmidt.com)
Some interesting web sites include OldDecoys.com and www.robertshaw.com
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