Working Chesapeake bay duck decoys:
Hand Chopped Holly's : A real nice pair of Holly family decoys from the late 19th century. After the wood block was roughed out with an ax, a drawknife was usually used to carve the wood by pulling the knife toward the carver. Usually seated, the carver worked on the block at a table, or at a Shave horse built expressly for draw knife work. The block of wood was held in place by an arrangement of a leaver that held the block in place by foot pressure. A spoke shave, which looks like a modern safety razor, and originally used for shaping wood wagon spokes; was used to complete the decoy. Sometimes further sanding was employed, to different degrees, especially for the separate head assembly.
The decoy on the blue background, sitting on the shot bag, on the right is an Early James Holly. The roughed out head has had little post finishing after being "whittled" into it's basic shape. This was common with Susquehanna decoys of this era. The sharp lines for the head structure are evident in both photos, the James Holly decoy is in front of the John "Daddy" Holly decoy on the black background.
Later James Holly decoys took on a more refined shaped and sanded head that surpassed the shape and finish of the John Holly decoy heads. The body of the 2nd generation James Holly decoy also takes on the longer 20th century style. The James Holly is three quarters of an inch longer than the John Holly decoy design. The head on the James Holly is believed to have direct influence from Sam Barnes, who was a close friend of James Holly. There is much confusion as to exactly who made various decoys that have similar looks and form to both Barnes and Jim Holly. A lot of campfire controversy and argument has been hashed over the years concerning this and new fires need not be fanned here.
Also of notice is the leather line tie of the John Holly and the staple and ring tie of the James Holly. The staple and ring is a superior arrangement in every way. I wish I could include in my collection all the the Susquehanna decoys that probably got loose and lost from leather line ties that wore, tore, broke and came off the body. I'm sure they were scattered up and down the bay by the dozens in earlier times, especially after a spat of rough icy weather.
Many collectors speak of form in Chesapeake decoys as if it was something devised as an artistic ethos of an inherent design of an individual carver's consciousness. Collectors speak of the beautiful lines or form as if the carver made the decoy to stroke the human sense of art appreciation. This may be true of later day decorative carvers and decoy makers from other regions, but seldom early Upper-Chesapeake carvers.
Early Chesapeake carvers had no such illusions and designed decoys not only with many aspects of a "collective unconscious ", but also for strictly utilitarian reasons. The lines and form and structure not only built upon what other carvers were up to, but followed a logical progression in form and function for one reason, to act as a tool to kill waterfowl.
On the Chesapeake, diving ducks like the Canvasback, Redhead and Blackhead were not considered especially smart. The Redhead was so easily tolled and lured into decoy spreads, that today it's low numbers can be largely attributed to that deadly habit. Decoy carvers of the Chesapeake did not consider items like glass eyes necessary to lure waterfowl. Exact bird shape and color were secondary to how easy it was for the line to be wound and unwound on the decoy so that the decoy could be set out and picked up with minimum fuzz and maximum speed. It is importance to consider the practical nature of the Chesapeake waterman to truly understand Susquehanna decoys. Imagine being on the Flats in the late 1800's. It's a windy, icy day, before Global warming, ( In earlier times the bay actually froze over on occasion ) your a local waterman without modern waterproof, windproof clothing and dry neoprene gloves, setting out hundreds of decoys. This bone-chilling chore seems hard to contemplate when we consider a modern life of ease and comfort.
The old birds of the Susquehanna (both waterman and canvasbacks) were indeed tough customers.