My First Decoy

Profile of this beautiful working bluebill decoy

This was the first decoy in my collection, and the only one I had for several years.  Jordan was interning for Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC after her second year of law school.  I flew out to visit her and we made a day trip to her childhood home in the Washington's Crossing/Titusville area of New Jersey.  We went tubing on the Delaware River and stopped in the Decoys and Wildlife Gallery in Frenchtown.  At $225 we may have overpaid for it, I really have no idea, but it is a beautiful decoy.

Bottom and top views

The carver if the decoy is unknown, but the seller identified it as being from the late '30's or early '40's, and that it had been hunted over on the Delaware River.  The piece of metal on the bottom looks to be original, but I'm not sure how a weight was attached, or how it may have been attached to a decoy line.  The decoy has painted eyes and a hollow body, and is in nice shape except for the slight separation of the top and bottom halves.

You can see the separation between the top and bottom halves

Given that it was the first decoy I had purchased, and that Jordan and I had picked it out together, it holds a special place in the collection.  It is on the south wall, sharing a shelf with my duck calls and some other memorabilia.

The bluebill holds a special place in the collection