October 17, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Cohasset Historical Society is hosting a duck decoy exhibit, “Ducks in a Row,” from Oct. 28 through Nov. 27, with a focus on the history and artistry of duck decoys on the South Shore.
This event will also feature two programs presented by well-known Hingham decoy carver Bill Sarni, who will demonstrate decoy carving.
The display, designed to reflect both the beauty and practical uses of decoys in duck hunting, will feature about 50 decoys, six miniatures, and a punt gun from Cohasset resident Tim Davis’ extensive collection, with a history behind each one.
“Those visiting the exhibit will see duck decoys made by renowned local carvers Joe Lincoln and Elmer Crowell and others and marvel at the beauty and practical use of decoys in duck hunting on the rivers and ponds of the local area,” Davis told the Hingham Anchor.
Sarni, a folk artist who is well-known for his outstanding decoy carvings featuring meticulous detail and form and his knowledge of antique decoys, will present programs on the art of decoy-making and collecting on Saturday, Oct. 28, from noon to 2 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 10, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. As a child, Sarni grew up a door down from Lincoln’s address.
The exhibit will run Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 106 South Main St.
Sarni has earned several awards and ribbons for his decoys, and many private collectors and individuals have commissioned his work. He was named numerous times as one of the top 200 traditional craftsmen in the country by “Early American Life Magazine.”
Carving demonstration
During the decoy exhibit, Sarni will bring some of his unfinished carvings and work on them while answering questions about collecting and carving.
Inspired by Lincoln and other Hingham and Accord carvers — including Charles W. Thomas, Alfred Gardner, Ralph Laurie, and Russ and Alston Burr, Sarni continues to work in the Hingham and New England style of carving and is both a collector and restorer of decoys.
When asked what he thinks is the reason why people collect decoys, Sarni told the Hingham Anchor, “The lines and paint work [on many of them] are very nice, showing the carved feathers [and other features] in a lifelike way. Some look so real that you think they are going to move.”
Sarni enjoys carving ducks and shore birds at 6 a.m., weather permitting, at Nantasket Beach. “It’s so peaceful and beautiful in the morning,” he said. “It’s a great place to carve, especially in the summer.”
History of decoys
Davis outlined the history of decoys. “Waterfowl decoys have been employed by hunters in North America since the Native Americans hunted with bows and arrows. As cities along the Atlantic coast prospered during the 19th century, the demand for duck in the finer restaurants created an industry for duck hunters who used many decoys in their trade,” he explained. “In places like the flats of the Susquehanna River, as many as 200 to 500 decoys were set out at one time, since the larger the set, the more birds it drew.”
Initially these decoys, or blocks, were rough approximations of birds on the water and could be purchased from carvers for 20 50 cents each. By the 1840s, however, carvers began making their blocks to more closely resemble a live bird.
“As the demand for decoys grew, the market outgrew the individual carvers, and factory decoys were manufactured by companies such as the Mason Decoy Factory of Detroit, Michigan,” Davis said.
The end of the 19th century and the early 20th century marked the greatest era of wildfowl shooting the world has ever known, due chiefly to the activity of the market gunners, according to Davis.
“In as early a two-year season as 1846-47, one Chesapeake Bay gunner bagged a thousand Canvasbacks. One hunter on Long Island is said to have shot 640 ducks in one day,” Davis explained. “This activity led to protests and to the Federal Migratory Bird Act of 1913, which prohibited Spring hunting and banned the shipment of birds for sale.”
In 1919, the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act with Canada and enforced by the Supreme Court in 1920, put the market hunters out of business. This also ended the market for decoy carvers and factories.
‘Art is defined by those who appreciate it’
Art is one of the most inclusive words in language, Davis said. “Just as beauty is ‘in the eye of the beholder,’ art is defined by those who appreciate it. Art has been attributed to much in life; we have learned that art is also in the ‘deal.’ However, most art was created by the artist or musician for simply admiring or enjoying,” Davis said. “Folk art, especially the working decoy, is different. Antique folk art is distinguished from traditional art in that, while collected today based mostly on its artistic merit, it was never intended to be ‘art for arts sake’ at the time of its creation.”
Examples include weathervanes, old store signs and carved figures, itinerant portraits, carousel horses, fire buckets, painted game boards, cast iron doorstops, and many other similar lines of highly collectible “whimsical” antiques,” Davis said. “Working, or ‘gunning’ waterfowl decoys/blocks, were created exclusively for a single purpose — to provide duck or goose dinners to the homes and restaurants in the land. Shorebird decoys were for the sole purpose of obtaining elegant feathers for Victorian ladies’ hats.”
Davis noted that Crowell eventually moved from carving working decoys to decorative decoys, one of which sold at auction about 15 years ago for $750,000.
“Folk art is beautiful to look at,” he said. “I have about 250 decoys in my collection and really appreciate them. l look at them every day.”
For further details, go to https://www.cohassethistoricalsociety.org/.