MANY OF THE BEAUTIFUL & ORIGINAL BRUSH MARKS & PAINT SWIRLS & THICK FEATHERED PAINT MAKES THIS A NICE DECOY TO FIND....and QUITE RARE AS IT IS A PAINTED EYE MODEL...THE RAREST OF THE STANDARD GRADES BY PAINT and GRAY BILL!! BEAUTIFUL PAINT BRUSH MARKS ON THE HEAD, ESPECIALLY THE WHITE CROWN or \"PATE\" on THE TOP!!
- RARE with its ORIGINAL NECK PUTTY PERFECTLY INTACT!!
It\'s Not Often You Come Across VERY NICE, ORIGINAL PAINT & GREAT CONDITION MASON DECOYS; THAT ESPECIALLY GOES FOR 105-YEAR OLD PAINTED-EYE BALDPATE WIDGEON!!
- PAINTED EYE DECOYS in the STANDARD GRADE WERE THE \"ENTRY LEVEL\" STANDARD MODELS!!
- BEAUTIFUL PAINT DETAIL to the CRISPLY EXECUTED BREAST EDGE, SUPERB BROWN BACK & BLACK TAIL with WHITE WING COVERT TEAR-DROPS!!!!!!
This Decoy Also Has ALL of the Great 100% Original Paint Brush Swirls & Feathering From The Thick & Beautiful Original Paint!!!
Gorgeous Detail Paint to the Entire Decoy that was Done By a Mason Artist Over a Century Ago!!
OUTSTANDING WHITE WING COVERT DETAIL THAT YOU DON\'T ALWAYS SEE ON STANDARD GRADE PAINTED-EYE MODEL DECOYS!!
-also- THIS DECOY IS ALSO A GREAT DECOY AS the AWESOME and 100% ORIGINAL NECK PUTTY IS INTACT!!
PAINTED EYE ARE THE RAREST OF ALL THE STANDARD MODELS BECAUSE OF THEIR THINNER BODY and MORE RELAXED QUALITY STANDARDS COMPARED TO THE TACK-EYE AND GLASS-EYED MODELS!! FOR THAT VERY REASON AND THE FACT THAT TACK-EYED WERE A NOMINAL UPCHARGE CUSTOMERS WERE EASILY TALKED INTO UPGRADING TO TACK EYES AND QUITE OFTEN TO GLASS EYED MODELS!!
- WAY FEWER PAINTED EYE MODELS WERE MADE WHICH MAKES THESE LITTLE GEMS RARE AND A GREAT FIND!!!
PAINTED EYE MASONS are ALSO THE RAREST BECAUSE FAR FEWER of THESE MODELS WERE MADE BECAUSE it WAS EASIER FOR a HUNTER TO JUSTIFY BUYING the STEP-UP GLASS EYE OR TACK EYE MODELS for a NOMINAL UPGRADE FEE!!
This Decoy Also has the Tremendous and Much Sought After Great Paint Brush Swirls From The Thick, Original Paint....a Swirling Masterpiece in the Decoy World!!!!!
A WONDERFUL AND VERY CLEAN AND CRISPLY EXECUTED PAINTED EYE MASON WIGEON DECOY, ONE of THE RAREST OF THE GROUP!!!
I CAN\'T ENCOURAGE YOU ENOUGH to USE the ZOOM FEATURE in this LISTING to GET a SUPER CLOSE-UP of the SWIRLING MASON PAINT!!
If You Like Old Gunning Decoys That Did What They Were Made To Do and Show The Obvious Wear But Look Great, Here is a Great Decoy For Your Collection!!
SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE
This 114+ year old decoy was made by the Mason Decoy Factory in Detroit, Michigan and is a Painted Eye, Standard Grade Drake Baldpate Wigeon Duck Decoy. The Painted eye model was their entry grade of the standard grade model of wood decoy, one below the tack eye. The painted eye was the entry model of wood decoy but the was the version that was made in the fewest numbers. The painted eye standard grade decoys, like this decoy up for sale, were the quickest made with the least amount of attention to detail of all of the Mason decoys. They were quickly painted and carved and normally they were made with no frills or detail and simply made to resemble the species. This decoy up for sale, however, is a very exquisitely painted decoy, which was not always the case with these painted-eye model. The heads were attached to the bodies with scored dowels and the quality control on standard models where the attachment wasn\'t flush was simply hid with a quick swath of putty to fill and then evened flush. An Excellent Thing about this decoy is that it Retains All of the Awesome and 100% Original Neck Filler!! But what is even more impressive is that the head is as tightly attached to the body as if this decoy was made yesterday. The original glue holds this place perfectly intact and it is just a very nice, very scarce, very old and fairly early Mason, Painted Eye Wigeon Decoy!!
Although the standard grade was the largest seller in the Mason product line, the Paint Eye Model was the least demanded and was sold in significantly fewer numbers than tack or glass-eyed models which makes them obviously significantly rarer. And although the painted Eye Wigeon are Not the Scarcest of the Paint Eye Models, there certainly aren\'t many out there and I very, very rarely see them in my travels. I see glass eye models rather routinely as a matter of fact. The reasons for far fewer numbers produced was that the painted eye models had much narrower bodies which added to rolling and the lower quality standards and aesthetics made it much easier for a consumer to justify a step-up to a tack-eye or glass-eye purchase for a nominal upgrade fee. All Standard decoys were carved solid and hand-made and hand-painted not long after the turn of the century. Of the several wood decoy factories in Detroit, Mason would outlive them all and have a 30 year existence. This decoy is structurally in mint, perfect original condition and as you can see this decoy retains all of the awesome brush marks and paint swirls from the day an artist painted it some 100 years ago; even the \"Awesome Paint Detail\". The paint on this decoy is thick, original and excellent paint. Although this decoy doesn\'t have scalloped breast paint, the Paint is so Nice that it looks like what you would find on a Glass eye model, which was their Top-of-the-Line Model of the standard grade wood decoy, one above the the Tack Eye and two above the Painted Eye Models! This decoy up for sale, however, is a Very Nice, Painted Eye Model and it has a Very Textured and Rich, Burnished Patina!! This decoy is structurally in Excellent 100% Original Condition and as you can see this decoy retains all of the awesome brush marks, paint brush Marks and Swirls from the day an artist painted it some 110 years ago; even the \"Awesome Paint Detail\". The paint on this decoy is thick, original and artfully textured paint like no other decoy factory other than Mason was able to achieve.
\"GLASS-EYE\" WIGEON \"STANDARD GRADE\" PAIR of WIGEON!!
\"PAINTED-EYE\" DRAKE WIGEON \"STANDARD GRADE\"!!
(Above:) PHOTO SHOWS The SLIGHTLY PLUMPER BODY STYLE of the GLASS-EYED & TACK-EYED MODELS -versus- THE SLIGHTLY NARROWER PAINT EYE MODELS!!
(The Glass and Tack-Eyed Models Had a Wider and More Contoured, Bulkier Body Than the Paint Eye Model, Which is the Exact Same Decoy up for sale!!)
- THIS AWESOME PAINTED EYE WIGEON DECOY Up For sale Has The SAME FORM & STYLE!!
(Above:) THIS AWESOME WIGEON DECOY Up For sale Has SUPERB SWIRLING ORIGINAL BRUSH MARKS and is a VERY RARE, PAINTED EYE WIGEON by MASON DECOY that was MADE OVER A CENTURY AGO!!!
This awesome decoy up for sale is also not just one of Mason\'s standard Drake Wigeon decoys, it is a Great Specimen with Vivid Original Paint and in Excellent 100% Original Everything! While the Premier and Challenge Grade Wigeon were noted as decoys that captured the essence of the species perfectly, this Awesome Decoy up for sale is a Perfectly executed Little Drake Wigeon and it also does an excellent job of capturing the look and feel of a wigeon in the wild.
\"TACK-EYE\" WIGEON \"STANDARD GRADE\" WIGEON!!
\"PAINTED-EYE\" DRAKE WIGEON \"STANDARD GRADE\"!!
(Above:) PHOTO SHOWS The BASIC, YET BEAUTIFUL PAINT JOBS AWARDED MOST \"TACK-EYE\" and \"PAINTED EYE\" MODELS MADE BY MASON!!
(The Paint-Eye and Tack-Eyed Models Often Had Straight Line Breast Edges But Nicely painted White Wing Covert Patches, Which is the Exact Same as This Decoy up for sale!!)
- THIS AWESOME PAINTED EYE WIGEON DECOY Up For sale Has The SAME FORM & STYLE!!
This decoy displays wonderfully and based on the awesome condition, I am sure that this decoy was has spent its entire retirement in a few collections and it has always been in collections that were Temperature-Controlled settings with No Direct Sunlight to Fade this Beautiful Decoy\'s 100% Original Paint!! The Very Nice, Original Yellow-Orange Painted Eyes are nicely located and the paint on the \"Chestnut Breast\", \"Dark Brown Back\" and \"Black Tail\" detail paint looks perfect and it is wonderfully original and perfectly intact. This Awesome decoy is also structurally perfect AS THE HEAD IS AS TIGHTLY ATTACHED TO THE BODY AS IF MADE YESTERDAY, AND EVEN THE ORIGINAL NECK PUTTY IS 100% INTACT AND 100% ORIGINAL. Many Mason Decoys typically have had some type of loss to the original neck putty, which is quite normal as a great many of the vintage Mason decoys that you see have had some type of restoration or replacement done to their neck putty. This Awesome Drake Wigeon or Baldpate decoy up for sale however, is an awesome example of a decoy with all of the original neck putty intact, and the head is as tightly attached to the body as if it were made yesterday!! This decoy is as solid as the day it was made with no looseness in the neck whatsoever and the deep, bright and vivid original paint is excellent and it hasn\'t darkened one bit from age; this decoy truly has outstanding original, textured and swirling thick brushed paint. Additionally, this decoy is in excellent original condition with beautiful and fully intact original paint as you can see in the pictures, and overall it is very dry and nice old and original paint with a beautiful and naturally burnished semi-sheen or slightly shiny matte finish to it from being handled over the years. The outstanding patina on this decoy really is excellent and although it is very hard to capture it in photos, but you can use the zoom feature in this listing to get a good look at the wonderful \"texture\" and \"character\" that the surface that this antique and important old gunning decoy has. You can actually feel the ridges to the swirling original paint\'s brush marks. This decoy was obviously rigged and possibly gunned over more than a century ago, and it looks awesome and in incredible condition for an old gunning bird from over a century ago. The original paint was done extremely well and as you can see by the many photos, all of the famous Mason Paint Brush Marks and wonderful Swirling Paint is 100% Completely intact and this super thick original paint is perfectly intact. But even more awesome is the back and tail paint, which is also quite \"minty\" and is always a bonus on the standard grade decoys and it looks beautiful!!
(Above:) THIS AWESOME WIGEON DECOY Up For sale Has SUPERB SWIRLING ORIGINAL BRUSH MARKS and is a VERY RARE, PAINTED EYE WIGEON by MASON DECOY that was MADE OVER A CENTURY AGO!!!
- LOOK AT HOW AWESOME THE BROWN BACK and WING PAINT DEFINES the WING PRIMARIES and then PERFECTLY TRANSITIONS INTO THE VERY THICK, SWIRLING BLACK TAIL PAINT!!
This decoy is in excellent 100% Original Condition on the entire top and sides of the decoy and the bottom is free of any of the typical checking, but it obviously had its lead ballast and line-tie removed at some point in time which has checking on the bottom, but that is quite typical and it is quite natural as it often occurred when original rigging was removed. If you ask me, the rigging or the absence of rigging on the beautiful old Mason\'s old adds to the Aura of this Important Pieces of Decoy Carving History. It was also quite normal for people to cannibalize the rigging for other decoys from these old decoys as they were retired onto a shelf or into a display case!! This Very Nice and Very Scarce Drake Wigeon decoy measures 14\" long x 4-3/8\" wide x 6-1/8\" tall and weighs 1-lb. 7-ozs. These Dimensions are Perfect for a Painted Eye Model. That really is incredible and it is also a testament to Mason\'s Incredible Quality Control and Exacting Standards that were outlined for their carvers and artists and they expected these standards to be executed with little or no tolerances. This is Just an outstanding decoy that will complement any collection of vintage duck and shorebird decoys from a company that represents as big a part of American Decoy History as any other maker or carver. Thanks for looking and if you have any additional questions or would like another photo feel free to email me.
The First 10 Photos are of This Awesome and Quite Hard-to-Find Drake Painted-Eyed Bluebill Decoy Up for sale!! The Last 5 Photos are of other Mason Paint Eye Decoys and their more common glass eye cousins!!
I COMBINE ALL SHIPPING!!
