This auction is for an excellent pair of Mallard Decoys carved and painted by the famous Illinois River carver Walter "Tube" Dawson of Putnam, Illinois. They are hollow decoys in original condition just as they were put away after the last time they were hunted over. They have light to moderate gunning wear and are in original paint. These were purchased directly from Tube Dawson in the late 1940’s by an affluent hunter from Rockford Illinois. They were used on lake Senachwine, a large backwater lake adjacent to the town of Putnam(Dawsons home town) the central Illinois River valley. I purchased these decoys from the son of the original owner. Each decoy carries the rig brand of the owner “DJS”(the owners initials). The have their original keel weights and line ties.
Walter Dawson was one of Illinois most famous and prolific carvers. At seventeen, he began carving decoys - an interest he was to pursue for the next fifty years. During this time, in addition to his professional work as a carpenter and house builder, he made wooden decoys, duck calls, single-bowed fishing boats and several double-bowed duck boats. Dawson learned the carpentry trade from his father, but his first love was hunting. Beginning in 1905, he shot for the market in the fall, winter and spring until market hunting was outlawed in 1918. He constructed the hollow-bodied decoys, mostly mallards and pintails, from red cedar or white pine in either two or three sections. The bodies were held on a carving horse he devised and then roughed out the blocks with a drawknife. He hollowed out the interiors and smoothedthem on a homemade belt sander. He rough-sawed the heads with a band saw and finished them by hand with a pocketknife. For additonal information, please see "DECOYS and DECOY CARVERS of ILLINOIS" by Parmalee & Loomis, published by Northern Illinois University Press in 1969.
