Nice \"Working\" Pair of Mason Decoy Company Whistler Standard Glass Eye Model Duck Decoys in Original Paint!
Description
While not a rig-mate pair, both of the Mason Common Goldeneye decoys are simply nice, honest wear, working decoys from the Mason Factory DecoyCompany. Each decoyexhibits Mason\'s superior paintwork with excellent feather sweeps, thinly applied paint,nice paint strokes, anddelicate form and are a great addition to a factory collection at a likelyreasonable price!Bothdecoys have the standardupward facing head/chin with smooth long bills, nicely crowned heads, and excellent paint transitions. The greats news is the necks are both still tight and the neck filler may very well be original! The hen, at one time, had a bottom weight that has since beenremoved and the drake has an oldtriangular weight attached to the bottom with three nails. The bottom of the drake also has a nail driven into the bottom likely that was used as a line tie. What I reallylike about these decoys is that you can still see the originalindividual paint stroked on the decoysespecially at the transitions and around the detail work. This is what made Mason decoys the superior factory decoys of the first two quarters of the 20th century and far betterthan Hays, Pratt, and others that used asimilarform.
Condition Report
Personally I can\'t see anyevidence of the paint being anything but 100% original. The paint is too thin and delicate to suggest that any work has been done since they came out of the factory. They are simply really nice working examples. They both have obvious wear with the hen having more than the drake. The hen also has some tight bodycheck on the back and sides. The drake though is free of any body checks except on the bottom surface where itappears some grains separated and fell out and have were then filled at one point as evidenced by the missing section of wood. No paint was applied over top of this fill after it was installed. The both have greatglasses and it looks like one eye on the hen is a very old replacement, though well-matched. The heads, as stated above, are tight. I am not sure if the neck filler is original or not, though I believe it may be, but if it isn\'t this may be the only place of any painttouch up. The heads and the bills on both decoys are in exceptionalcondition for their age and the photos, I feel, really show the condition better than I can state it. Even with the wear, these are really nice decoys in hand!
I have done my best to document this decoy through both the text above and the photographs. Please look over all the photos and if you have any questions or request any additional images, please just ask before offerding. I will do my best to accommodate any and all requests. The decoy you are seeing is the exact one you will be getting, therefore, there should be no surprises if you have taken the time to scroll through all the photos and read the text. While I do not generally take returns, I will accept a return if there is something blatant that I missed or failed to disclose. This doesn\'t happen often, in fact it never has to date, as I am generally diligent with my assessment of the decoy and provide detailed photographs, but something could get missed. I am human after all. Unless the decoy is listed in 100% original paint, expect some old hunter touch-up. Almost every single decoy I have for sale was in fact a working decoy part of a larger rig and subject to typical gunning wear including rubs that were typically touched-up between hunting seasons as a way to pass the time during the off-season. Some of these decoys are more than 100 years old and over the course of many hunting seasons it is bound to happen. Overall, I am easy to work with and more than willing to be helpful in any way possible.
Carver\'s Name/History
Thereisn\'t much here that I can say about Mason Decoy Company that hasn\'t been said 100x over in books and on theinternet. The Mason company was simply the best factory decoy producer during the early 1900\'s and there decoys seem to be growing in collectibilty every year. The desire for collectors to own them is simple. They have great form, great paint, and are very pleasing on the eyes when sittingon a mantle or decoy shelf. Every collector seems to have a few in their collection and they are thepinnacle of many factory decoycollectors. Mason made decoys from 1888-1894 and from 1903-1924 before selling their equipment to Wm. E. PrattCompany. The best decoy book was written by Goldberger and Haid called \"Mason Decoys - A Pictorial Guide.\"
Shipping Information
Each decoy will be carefully packed to ensure no damage occurs in transit, under normal handling practices of course. I strive to ship all items within two business days, but sometimes life gets in the way and it may take an additional day to get the package shipped out to you. I don\'t want the decoy to arrive damaged and neither do you, so if I am short on packaging please understand that the third day, which occurs less than 2% of the time, is most likely due to having to purchase additional peanuts, bubble wrap, or a more adequately sized box. I will also gladly combine shipping typically for less than half of normal postage on the lowest priced shipping charge when two purchases are made, and shipped, at the same time. My shipping charges are as close to actual as I can adequately gauge. I don\'t like to use the shipping calculator as it is often incorrect. Be assured that I am not making money on shipping as supplies like tape, boxes, peanuts, and etc. all quickly add up. In fact, in most cases I am losing $ on shipping, but that is just part of the sellers experience. For international shipments buyers can use \'s Global Shipping Program or contact me for a quote. The choice is yours. In most cases I always ship USPS, but in certain scenarios where a package is heavy or being shipped to the west-coast, UPS may be used. All shipping charges are for the lower 48 states only, shipping to Hawaii or Alaska will incur additional charges.
Terms
Most of my decoys are for sale as a high-buyer gets it in a straight-laced no-reserve sale. I say most because as you see some decoys will have a modest/fair-market reserve. For the most part I am simply cleaning out my current collection and whittling it down to what I want to keep. Call it down-sizing if you will. So to that, I am not interested in taking a major hit and I am OK with keeping them for my own collection. I will also from time to time have a few fixed-price listing for items that I feel are better suited for potentially a singular buyer. I am easy to get along with. If a decoy doesn\'t meet reserve, let\'s talk. I am also always looking for select Ontario-carved decoys, so keep in touch.
*NOTE: As with most sporting collectibles, along with being a great addition to a game room or home decor, vintage decoys have shown to be a sound investment that seldom decrease in value. Each decoy is truly a One-Of-A-Kind item as no two hand-carved decoys are exactly alike and with so few available decoys from each carver, as time passes, they will surely only increase in value
*Be sure to add my to your favorite sellers/searches. I have many more decoys to add from all regions including the Chesapeake Bay, Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, New York, Illinois, the St. Lawrence River, region and the Maritimes in the coming days/weeks from various makers from Ben Schmidt to George Warin to Anger and will always hold shipments to combine shipping.
On Mar-28-15 at 16:21:23 PDT, seller added the following information:
After some further thought and looking at the decoys under a loop, it does appear that the heads may have some touch-up. It appears to have been expertly, but I wanted to make a note that there may be some touch-up to the heads specifically around the bill region. I like to discloseeverything I see and thanks to the message from a fellow er I did some deeperinvestigation over simply looking at the surface and found a fewinconsistencies thatwarrantbeingpointed out.
