"Treasure Chest"

     As a decoy collector, unless you are incredibly wealthy you can’t collect everything.  While I have had some great Dudley, Ward, Hudson and other Eastern Shore decoys in my collection, my focus has always been on the decoys of the Susquehanna Flats or the “Upper Bay.”  The history of this region of Maryland is both interesting and sad.

     Until the early part of the 1900’s the region of the Chesapeake Bay around Havre de Grace was a mecca for waterfowling.  The wild celery that grew in abundance in the shallow waters or “Flats,” attracted flocks of ducks that numbered in the thousands.  There are photos in existence which show the sky literally black with clouds of ducks.  Prevalent among the flocks were the Redheads and the regal Canvasbacks which came to feed on the wild celery.  The Canvasback was considered a gourmet’s delight and the demand for wild ducks for the hotels and restaurants and the tables of the wealthy spawned a generation of entrepreneurs called market hunters.  Canvasbacks brought as much as $5 per pair on the market, so a good number of locals tried to cash in by gunning for the market. As a result, duck populations were decimated.  Later, pollution and changes in salinity in the Bay killed off the wild celery, and the ducks all but disappeared.

      Many of the market hunters made their own decoys for use in the rigs on the Flats, and these are the decoys that are so avidly sought by collectors today.  Names like John ‘Daddy’ Holly, Madison Mitchell, Sam Barnes, Will Heverin and John Graham are legend today. To the casual eye, all these decoys look the same: red heads, white bodies with black breasts and tails.  To the student of the decoy there are differences and nuances that set one maker’s decoys apart from another’s, even though the respective makers were sometimes neighbors and gunning partners.  One looks for the “smile” carved into the bill of a Graham, or the notched tail of a Taylor Boyd, or the “half moon” nostrils of a Henry Lockard.  Frankly, I get cranked up just writing about it!

     I was fortunate to be able to collect (mostly) Canvasback decoys by these legendary makers before decoy prices went through the roof. (prices of $600,000 plus have been fetched at auctions) Mine are not for sale.  You can’t put a price on the pleasure that they provide for me in their form, grace, and the stories they could tell of icy days on the Bay.

      “Treasure Chest” was painted for a Ducks Unlimited project.  The blue chest in the painting is an old primitive tool box that serves as our coffee table, and has been chewed upon by both of our Labs.  I chose what I consider to be the best examples of each Susquehanna Flats decoy maker in my collection and I hope that a careful look will show the small differences in each one.  I added one hen (female) decoy, a wonderful Leonard Pryor bird just for a bit more variety. I loved doing this painting and if I had to pick one decoy painting out of the hundreds that I have done, “Treasure Chest” would still be my favorite.

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