Get to know me
I love to study old upper Chesapeake Bay Canvasback duck decoys. Many decoy collectors love to collect only original paint and pristine condition decoys. I, on the other hand love to see the old "working" Birds. These old wooden decoys have been in the water many an early morning, drawing thousands of ducks from the sky to the delight of their Hunter owner.
It is always nice when a collector can pick up an original paint decoy but many of the decoys I collect have two or three layers of paint from the years of use. Most of the decoys shown on this website were carved between 1870 and 1920. I call this the golden era of the working decoy carver.
In collector's circles, collecting repainted or working decoys from Upper Chesapeake Bay area is more of an accepted practice than in other parts of the country, where collectors demand more pristine condition decoys. I think because the upper bay carvers, carved the birds for hard use in rough waters, not for the shelf. This is not saying that pristine upper Bay decoys are not available. They are, but for a price!
As a young boy in the 1960s, my Grandfather would take me hunting on the Grand 
Kankakee River marshes of Northern Indiana. I can remember getting up early in the morning and helping him load his decoys into the truck. Then we would drive 1 hour to the location and spend the next hour dropping birds into the water around the duck blind. My love of the old decoys comes from spending hours on end with my Grandfather not only hunting, but repairing and keeping the old decoys in good shape for the next hunt. I guess this is why I love to imagine the history behind the layers of paint on an old working decoy. I can literally remember when in the late 60s my Grandfather taking his wooden birds and throwing them into the fire on the back 40 of the property. He did this because he just purchased a new rig of plastic ducks....So much lighter to carry, but what a loss.
I fell in love with the Chesapeake bay area Canvasback decoys because of their graceful full bodied form. I think these are some of the most beautiful decoys in the world. They are fine pieces of handcrafted art. And to think they were simply tools in another age.
This site is dedicated to the study and research of the Upper Chesapeake Bay decoys and the men who carved them. Please feel free to write with information regarding this study. Contact me at just2decoys@aol.com
David