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function passparaSC(){return \'&baseurl=\'+ escape((function(){var d = return d })()) + SCARCE CHALLENGE SNAKY ~SUPERB 100% ORG PAINT 1905 MASON FACTORY Wood Duck Decoy a.imagelink {color:#efe2ae;} a:hover.imagelink {color:#efe2ae;} a:visited.imagelink {color:#000000;} a.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #efe2ae; } a:visited.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #000000; } THE PAIR of GORGEOUS \"SNAKEY HEAD\" CHALLENGE GRADE MALLARDS BELOW are IDENTICAL to this BEAUTIFUL PAIR Up For sale!!!!

(BELOW):  THIS AWESOME PAIR of \"SNAKEY HEAD\" CHALLENGE GRADES Up For sale!!!!

• This Pair Up For sale aren\'t MINT LIKE the PAIR ABOVE;  BUT PAIRS of these MODELS are HARD TO COME BY, EVEN WHEN GUNNED OVER LIKE THIS STRIKING PAIR Up For sale!!

VERY SCARCE & HARD-TO-FIND \"SNAKEY HEAD\" MASONS;  SUPERB 100% ORIGINAL PAINT!!!    EARLY, c1905 \"MASON FACTORY\" CHALLENGE GRADE \"Glass Eye\";  \"HEN MALLARD\"  WOOD DUCK DECOY  Detroit, Michigan

INCREDIBLE PAINT DETAIL & SUPERB, HAND-POURED, IMPORTED BROWN GLASS EYES!!!

AWESOME \"SCALLOPED PAINT\" to the BEAUTIFUL TAIL PAINT!! 

• 110+ YEAR OLD DECOY with AN OUTSTANDING PAINT-TEXTURED, \"RICH\", BURNISHED from AGE, PATINA!!
  • ALL OF THE BEAUTIFUL & ORIGINAL BRUSH MARKS & PAINT SWIRLS & THICK FEATHERED PAINT MAKES THIS a NICE DECOY to FIND....and QUITE SCARCE with the FAMOUS AND MUCH SOUGHT AFTER \"SNAKEY\" CHALLENGE HEADS and BODIES!!

  EASILY THESE CHALLENGE GRADE DECOYS ARE THE MOST REALISTIC PROPORTIONED DECOYS IN THE ENTIRE LINE OF MASON WOOD DECOYS!!  

BEAUTIFUL PAINT BRUSH MARKS & SWIRLS,  ESPECIALLY THE BACK, WING, TAIL and BREAST PAINT!!!!

• RARE with NO NECK PUTTY AS THE JOINT WAS SO PERFECT THEY DIDN\'T USE ANY!!

It\'s Not Often You Come Across VERY NICE, ORIGINAL & GREAT CONDITION MASON DECOYS;  THAT ESPECIALLY GOES FOR 110-YEAR OLD \"SNAKEY HEAD\" CHALLENGE GRADE MALLARD DECOYS!!!!

• CHALLENGE GRADE MALLARD DECOYS HAVE the SAME BEAUTIFUL LINES as a WILD MALLARD, BUT Much SOUGHT AFTER and SCARCE \"SNAKEY HEAD\" VERSIONS are VERY SCARCE and SEEN VERY INFREQUENTLY!!!
• OUTSTANDING 100% ORIGINAL CONDITION with a TYPICAL MASON CHECK RUNNING THE LENGTH of the RIGHT SIDE!!!

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!!

 

• This Decoy Also has the Tremendous and Much Sought After Great Paint Brush Swirls From The Thick, Original Paint....a Swirling \"SCALLOPED PAINT\" Masterpiece on the TAIL!!

ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING & EXCEPTIONAL PATINA to the \"BURNISHED FROM AGE\" and VERY MUCH \"GLOWING\" SURFACE to this GORGEOUS ANTIQUE FACTORY MALLARD DUCK DECOY!!

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!!

THE EQUALLY BEAUTIFUL DRAKE MALLARD RIG-MATE TO THIS HEN IS ALSO ON if you are LOOKING FOR AN AWESOME PAIR OF RIG-MATES!!!!

Both Decoys Measure 17-1/4\" long x 5-1/4\" wide x 7\" tall -and- Weigh 2-lbs. 3-ozs. Each!!   THAT IS FANTASTIC & Makes for a Perfect Pair!!! 

That Makes for an awesome pair of Mason Gunning Decoys that are the same size and Weight, which makes for an awesome pair of decoys that were carved together and have been together since they were carved and in the protection of a climate controlled, light-free collections since they were retired together!!

SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE

This 110+ year old decoy was made by the Mason Decoy Factory in Detroit, Michigan and is a Glass Eye, Challenge Grade \"SNAKEY HEAD\" HEN MALLARD Decoy. The Challenge Grade Model was the upgrade of the standard grade models and was slightly below the hollow Premier Grade!!  The Premier Grade was a Hollow carved decoy that had the most elaborate painting and carving detail of any Mason decoys, but the Challenge Grade was only a step behind and many collector\'s find the pleasing and more anatomically correct Challenge grade birds to the Premier Grade decoys.  AND, the paint on this awesome pair of Challenge Grade decoys up for sale were afforded the Same \"Upgrade\" paint as the Most Beautiful Paint found on the Best of the Premier grade Mason decoys.  Additionally, this Pair of Beautiful and Unique Challenge Grade mallards also has the Awesome ans Best Carving Available, which is the Scare \"Snakey Head\". The numbers of Mason decoys carved in the various grades varied by species.  Mason made far more numbers of decoys in the 3 Glass Eyed Models, and hence significantly less in the tack-eyed and painted eye standard grade models.  The painted eye was the entry model of wood decoy but this was the version that was made in the fewest numbers.  The painted eye standard grade decoys 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.  

As far as Mason duck decoys are concerned, the Challenge Grade Model was the upgrade of the standard grade models and was slightly below the hollow Premier Grade!!  The Premier Grade was a Hollow carved decoy that had the most elaborate painting and carving detail of any Mason decoys, but the Challenge Grade was only a step behind and many collector\'s find the pleasing and more anatomically correct Challenge grade birds to the Premier Grade decoys.  But again, the Challenge grade decoys were all made as solid-bodied birds, unless special ordered to be carved hollow.  The numbers of Mason decoys carved in the various grades varied by species as well as gender.

THIS VERY NEAT MASON \"CHALLENGE\" MALLARD Up For sale Has the VERY UNIQUE \"CHALLENGE STYLE\" STYLE......BUT with the \"INCREDIBLY\" BEAUTIFUL PAINT of the VERY BEST MASON \"PREMIER\" MODEL PAINT!!!

This decoy up for sale, however, is a Perfectly executed Challenge Hen Mallard decoy with Nice and Even Wear to the Paint and Obvious Even rubbing to the Edges!!  The heads on these Challenge Snakey-Head decoys were attached to the bodies with long scored dowels and the quality control was such that like all Premier and Challenge duck decoys, they only used neck putty where needed and it usually wasn\'t much.  An Excellent Thing about this decoy is that There was never any Neck Filler Used!! But what is even more impressive is that the head is as tightly attached to the body as if this decoy was made yesterday, although it might have been strengthened with a finishing nail or two while in use and still being gunned over.  The head is tight and held in perfectly and it is just a very nice, very scarce, very old and fairly early You Are Looking For An Outstanding & Rare, \"Snakey Head, Premier-Paint Specimen\" From One of The World\'s Most Important Factory Decoy Makers in History.....THIS IS A GREAT DECOY FOR YOU!!!!

Of the several wood decoy factories in Detroit, Mason would outlive them all and have a 30 year existence.  This decoy is structurally in 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 110 years ago; even the paint brush marks, paint swirls wonderfully painted \"scalloped\" Tail paint and Super-Fine Speculums!!  While this decoy has great scalloped tail paint, the Paint is so Nice that it looks like what you would find on a very Good Premier Grade decoy, which was basically their Top-of-the-Line Model!  This Decoy may Not Have Scalloped Breast paint, but the stippled Paint on the Sides and Breast More than makes Up For It with its Awesome detail and textured, feathery Appearance.This decoy up for sale, however, is a Very Nice, Scarce \"Snakey Head\" Glass Eye Model and it has a Very Textured and Rich, Burnished Patina!!  This decoy is structurally in Excellent Condition and as you can see this decoy retains many 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.

This awesome decoy up for sale is also not just one of Mason\'s Awesome Challenge Great decoys, it is a Great Specimen that was Adorned with not only Beautiful \"Premier\" Caliber Paint, but also the Very Much Sought After \"Snakey Style Head\"!!!

This decoy displays wonderfully and based on the excellent 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 Paint!!  The Very Nice, Brown,  Original Imported Glass Eyes are perfectly Carved in and Located and the pain  detail paint looks perfect and it is wonderfully and perfectly intact.  This Awesome decoy is also structurally perfect as the Head is Perfectly Attached and even the original seam and neck putty is mostly intact and original.  This decoy is as solid as the day it was made with no looseness in the neck whatsoever and the deep, bright and vivid paint is excellent and it hasn\'t darkened a bit from age; this decoy truly has outstanding textured and swirling thick brushed paint.  Additionally, this decoy has 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 incredible 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 intact and this super thick original paint is very pleasing.

This decoy is in excellent condition other than the very old and original check on the right side, but it obviously had its lead ballast and line-tie removed at some point in time.  The Tail and Bill on this Hen are Also Mint which is awesome becuase they were very prone to chipping, especially the tail tips. 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 \"Snakey Challenge\" decoy measures 17-1/4\" long x 5-1/4\" wide x 7\" tall and weighs 2-lbs. 3-oz. exactly.  These Dimensions are Perfect for a Challenge Grade mason Mallard.  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 PHOTO IS OF THIS AWESOME MASON HEN MALLARD UP FOR sale.  THE NEXT 6 PHOTOS ARE OF THIS HEN AND THE DRAKE RIG MATE THAT IS ALSO ON SHOWN TOGETHER.  THE LAST 16 PHOTOS ARE AGAIN OF THIS HEN BY ITSELF INCLUDING SOME AWESOME CLOSE-UPS SO YOU CAN SEE THE BEAUTIFUL SWIRLING MASON PAINT!!

 

BELOW ARE PICTURES of THE COMPLETE ASSORTMENT of MODELS AVAILABLE By MASON in the MALLARD SPECIES!!   THE 2 ON THE MIDDLE SHELF are \"CHALLENGE\" MODELS!!

BELOW ARE PICTURES of OTHER AWESOME CHALLENGE GRADE MALLARD DECOYS INCLUDING ANOTHER 2 PICTURES of SOME SCARCE AND MUCH SOUGHT AFTER \"SNAKEY HEADED\" ARE PICTURES of THE PRINCIPLE MEMBERS of the MASON FAMILY as WELL as the HOUSE WHERE it ALL STARTED FROM!!!

I COMBINE ALL SHIPPING!!