Vintage Red Breasted Merganser Drake Decoy, circa 1960s – 1970s

Vintage Red Breasted Merganser Drake Decoy, circa 1960s – 1970s, a hand carved and hand painted red breasted merganser drake decoy in a swimming posture with slightly turned and canted head, with carved crest, bill mandible and nares, glass eyes, bold black and white paint with red highlights.

Beautiful decoy done in the racy Canadian Maritimes style. The posture with head both slightly turned to the left, and slightly canted or cocked to the left as well, is a delightful tricked learned from the great Maine decoy artist Gus Wilson – those slight little touches give the duck a lot of personality and attitude, and when the decoy would have been used in the water the bird just comes to life.

The paint is wonderfully dried out and rubbed along the edges to deliberately give a much older appearance to the decoy. The hairline around the neck likewise was deliberate and probably never involved an actual break. Although this decoy is not signed, it is almost surely the work of Andre Broussard, a Quebec carver from the Verdun area, who was known for this style of softly “aged” decoys.

Measures: 5-1/4 in H x 19-1/2 in L x 5 in W