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SUPERB SWIMMER; RIG MARK \"JK\" c1910 AUGUST \"GUS\" MOAK Canvasback Wood Duck Decoy a.imagelink {color:#000000;} a:hover.imagelink {color:#000000;} a:visited.imagelink {color:#00A8A8;} a.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #000000; } a:visited.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #00A8A8; }

Augustus Aaron "Gus" Moak (1855 -to-12/6/1943)

FULLY RIGGED,EARLY GUNNING BLOCK, 100 YEARS OLD;"EXCELLENT FORM" c1910AUGUSTUS "GUS"MOAK (1855-1942); Solid Cedar; "DRAKE CANVASBACK"Wood Duck Decoy; (Tustin,Wisconsin; Northwest End of Lake Poygan)

• NICEPATINA to the ORIGINAL PAINT -and- VERY OLD, IN-USE GUNNING TOUCH-UP!!
• ALL ORIGINAL RIGGING: OriginalScrew Eye & Brass SwivelLine Tie,ElongatedSomewhat RoundedLead Ballast Weight -and- ANTIQUE RED GLASS EYES!!
• RIG MARKED with STENCILED: "J.K." (Also a Faint and Much Older & Possibly Original J.K.)

MOAK'S LAST NAME was Originally "MUCH"

OLD "GUYETTE & SCHMIDT" sale DECOY!!

• EXCELLENTDECOY in His Trademark "SWIMMING" Pose!!
• SuperblyCarvedHump-Back, Yet Flat-Topped Bodywith Integrated Neck Shelf!!
• HEAD is ATTACHED with His TYPICAL "DOUBLE ENDED" Wood Screw!!!!
• Great Long and Flat Tail!!!!

IF YOU LIKE VINTAGE GUNNING DECOYS FROM FAMOUS CARVERSTHAT SAW ACTION IN THE EARLY 1900'S, THIS IS A GREAT GUNNING BIRD TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION!!

• GREAT DRY, ORIGINAL & VERY OLDTOUCH-UP withVery Detailed Feathered WingEmphasis Paint!
• Awesome Form and Great Pointed Head and Bill from One of the FinestCanvasback Carvers of All Time!

IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS I WILL BE LOADING A BLUEBILL AND 2 MORE GUS MOAK CANVASBACKS, WHICH ARE DIRECTLY DESCENDED DOWN TO FAMILY &ARE UN-CIRCULATED!!

ALL SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE!!

This Vintage, 110 year old,wonderfully carved andpaintedSolidCedar Drake Canvasback duck decoywas made byAugustus Aaron "Gus" Moak (1855-1942) of Tustin, Wisconsin.Moak's birth name was Augustus Aaron "MUCH". He was born in Prussiain 1852.

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchyof Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centered on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia, with its capital in Berlin after 1451, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united in creating the German Empire under Prussian leadership. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power. Prussia was effectively abolished in 1932, and officially abolished in 1947.

Augustus Muchcame to the US through New York as an infant with his family in 1856, and the family settled in Tustin, Wisconsin.Around 1872August Much, like many other immigrants, changedhis last name from Much to Moak, and during this time he was working as a boat builder and carved ducks on the side. The Moak's couldn't have chosen a more attractive place to live from a waterfowling standpoint, as Tustin (located on the northwestern end of Lake Poygan), was known as the "Canvasback Capital of the World", from the mid 1800's to the turn of the century. Gigantic flocks of migrating canvasbacks , redheads and bluebills worked the lake feverishly in search of the once plentiful wild celery. In addition to thehuge flocks of divers, coots also amassed in the thousands on the lake during their spring and fall migrations on Lake Poygan, which measures9 miles east to west and 3 miles north to south. The spectacle of the huge flocks and the outstanding waterfowl hunting was enough of a draw thathunters came from across the country and royalty came from overseas to enjoy the excellentwaterfowl gunning. The ample food and the relative calm waters in compared to the rougher Great Lakes was a perfect place for migrating ducks and geese to rest up and feed. Gus Moak learned his carpentry skills from his father "Root",and he would soon become very proficient in working with wood that he wasbuilding excellent decoys, boats, bog skis (bog or swamp skis take men across bogs unreachable by boat or foot), and other tools for waterfowlers. During a 1975 interview, Gus Moak's most productive years were between 1875 and 1900.

The majority of Gus Moak's decoys were hollow carved, had convex bottom boards and were very finely painted. A trademark of Moak's decoys is the location of the eyes, which tended to be carved in and located well up on the head. Much like the decoys carved by several other notable carvers, the high-set eyes on Moak decoys appears to create the impression that the rafted-up decoys were diligently watching their live and flying cousins make their approach to land. Most of Moak's decoys were canvasbacks, atduring their hey-day they were bringing in$55 per dozen or $50 per dozen for bluebills. He also carved a limited number of coots and geese, and a handful of mallards have been found and attributed to him over the years. Moak's ballast weights were made using lead or tin based alloys called babbitt, which he often found along train tracks as they were commonly used during that erain train car wheel bearing surfaces. This reclamation of this metal saved him from having to dole out for therelatively high-priced lead that was available at that time. Some of Moak's decoys werecreated in "restful" poses, while others were carved as alert ducks. Moak's tails on average were longer than his contemporaries in the area, but it was his awesome paint jobs that separated him from the pack. Moak employed subtle little brush strokes to accent his artistry, although overall his paint applications were somewhat simple yet very accurate to their live cousins.

Again, as a young man,Gus Moak was a market hunter, trapper and all around outdoors-man that judiciously harvested what he needed. His natural pursuits included fish, fowl, small-game, large-game and even the timber that he used to create his much sought after and effective decoys. Again, like his father, Gus Moak became a well-accomplishedcarpenter and boat builder. Decoys would come later, around 1872, he would begin carving hiswonderful decoys that eventually would be made as solid and aesthetically effective as anything else in the region. He attached the majority of his heads to the bodies by using double-ended wood screws, although he also used standardwoodscrews on some hollow decoys that went up through the insidef the hollow body and up into the head. On these decoys,he obviously attached the head before the bottom board was attached. Although the majority of Moak's decoys havevarying lengths of "longer"tails, the backs of his decoys varied greatly and were either flat, rounded,orwell humped. Moaks decoy's heads also varied greatly and theyranged from high-necked, tucked,to his trade-marked heads which are usually categorized as swimmers. He also was known to have carved a limited number of decoys in the "calling" or "drinking" position, and it was not uncommon for the heads of his decoys to be turned. As noted earlier, hispaint patterns were very nice, but over the course of his career thecarving style varied greatly, almost as much as the intensely differing paint patterns that he used.Two of the notable paint applications that he used was the swirling breast painting and the stickled side paint that created the impression of atucked in wing. On female canvasbacks he used a white wing speculum with a blue line on either the front or back of the white and on the tops of his tails he used a feathering design that resembled a fleur de lis. The bluebills that he made over the course of his 60 year careerdizzyingly variedin both body style and paint patterning. Moak was also noted as being a stickler for detail, andover the course of his career he always used the correct eye color foreach species, except in the case of several Canada Geese where he was known to have used red.His geese also had great variances in their paint jobs, and on his earliest examples he even painted the white patch on his Canada geese running horizontally, as opposed to vertically from under the jowl. Although,as compared to the large number of geese that would use the area acentury later, there were few that migrated through the Lake Poygan region during Moak's days. Thus, his geese were believed to have been made strictly as confidence decoys and that because of this he did not find itnecessary to make the eye color biologically correct.

Like this nice canvasback decoy up for sale, Moak'sballast weights were longovaloid strips of his re-purposed lead alloy and they were typically attached with 2 screws. He was also known to position some of them "kitty corner",which made the decoy sit "flatter". In his later years,Gus Moak moved toIron Mountain, Michigan to live with hisdaughter Laura Granger (nee Moak, b. 1878) and his son-in-lawNorman Granger (b. 1878), and where he would continue to live until his passingon December 6, 1943, one day before the 1st anniversary of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.

This decoy is as solid as the day it was made and the entire decoy is in excellent condition other than a very old age split on the bottom that looks like it could have been original to the stock. Excellent craftsmanship as this bird was made with precision cuts, the head is firmly attached and the entire bird was carved perfectly symmetrically. This is a nice, well-weighted decoy that was made toswim flatand stand up to adecent waterchop.This decoy also has great form and has his trademarked craning neck that gives the impression that this big canvasbackdrake is swimming through the waters of Lake Poygan. This classicdecoy is 17-7/8" long x 6-1/8" wide x 7-3/8" tall and weighs a rather hefty 3-lbs. 2-oz., ofwhich I amsure thelead keel weight accounts for a good7 or8 ounces of that total. This bird is in excellent condition and based on themedium to heavyedge wear, I would think that this decoysaw several seasons of hard gunning useand then it went straight into a collection. Aside from the obvious paint loss, this is truly one of his more true-to-form decoys and it would make a nice addition to any decoy collection. The antiquered glass eyesareperfectly intact and mounted and located perfectly althoughits lefteye has a smallinternal crack,but it is very hard to see unless you look very closely and directly at it. A truly legendary decoy to add to your collection of fine gunning decoys by one of the more prominent decoy makers in Wisconsin's long history of decoy carvers. If you have any questions or would like an additional photo feel free to email me. Thanks for looking.

The first 13 photos are of this vintageGus Moak Drake Canvasbackhunting decoy up for sale and the last11 photos are of other Sensational Gus Moak Canvasbacks (These photos are from the Must-Have bookby RonKoch, "Decoys of the Winnebago Lakes")