The "Obadiah Verity" Decoys

                Where Were the "Obadiah Verity"and "Will Southard" Decoys Actually Made and Who Really Made Them?

 I am sure of three things about the decoys said to have been produced in the Seaford area of Nassau County referred today as Obadiah Verity,Will Southard, Verity Family or the "Seaford School":

(1) The decoys were not made by any of the many Obadiah Verity's found on Federal Censuses from Nassau County

(2) The decoys were not even made in Nassau County, N.Y.

(3) The attributions for both Obadiah Verity & William Southard as the makers of decoys was fabricated.  There was never any research or documentation for the two attributions.

 As we go back in time to the early days of decoy collecting, we can trace the evolution of the changing attributions for the decoys that today are said to have been made by Obadiah Verity and William Southard.

                                         1934 - Wild Fowl Decoys by Joel Barber

I can find no mention of Obadiah Verity or William Southward, or photos of the decoys that would be attributed to them 45 years later.

                               1959- Suffolk Museum at Stony Brook presents an exhibit, "Wild Foul Decoys"

In March of 1959, the museum presented an exhibit of Long Island decoys.  The shorebirds exhibited were divided into three categories; Snipe,Curlew and Plover.  It lists no makers names.  It lists only the owners of the decoys.  Newbold Herrick is listed as one of the owners.


                                            1961-Decoys at Shelburne Museum

 This book/catalog on the museum's collection does not mention Osborn, Verity or Southard and presents no photos of shorebird decoys that would later be referred to as Osborn, Osborn type, Verity or Will Southard.


                                1964- Decoy Collectors Guide, Hal Sorenson, November-December

Presents a list of the"Makers of Collectable Hunting Decoys".  There is no mention of William Southard on the list, but on page 14, we find "Obadiah Verity -Seaford Long Island 1850".

               

                               1965-American Bird Decoys by William J.Mackey Jr.
                               1965- The Art Of The Decoy by Adele Earnest
                               1965 -Decoy Collectors Guide, Hal Sorenson
                                     
H.F.Osborn snipe stool: Who was Henry Fleet Osborn of Bellport, Long Island?

He was born born October 15,1810 and died on December 1, 1873. His father was Charles Osborn and his mother's name was Charlotte.  The 1870 federal census lists Henry as a farmer.  His wife's name was Eliza.  They had three children.  He is listed as being buried in the Woodland Cemetery on Station Rd. North Bellport, NY.  I have found no contemporary references for him as a decoy maker.
               
In Mackey's American Bird Decoys, plate 85, we find four shorebirds decoys.  These decoys today would be cataloged as, and sold as, Obadiah Verity decoys.  The text reads, "Three typical Long Island Black bellied Plovers, with a tiny Sanderling on the left.  Birds of this style and quality are attributed to H.F.Osborn of Bellport.  They are well designed and durable."  There is no mention of why they are attributed to Osborn.

Plate 86, we find four shorebird decoys. Two are Yellowlegs that would today be attributed to William Southard, and a Black-bellied Plover and a Yellowlegs that most likely would be referred today as Verity Family decoys, or they would be assigned to another unverified and undocumented Verity name.  The text for plate 86 reads, "A Black-bellied plover rises over three yellowlegs.  They are proof that the classic "Osborn" style influenced other Long Island carvers.  Paint patterns and carvings follow the basic tradition.This group comes from the western end of Long Island".

On page 101 we find Mackey as usual making undocumented pronouncements:

"The group in plate 85 are in the style of H.F.Osborn pioneer Bellport gunner and decoy maker.  The attractive and practical patterns found many imitators,and decoys with minor variations in the carving and plumage patterns have turned up all along the South Shore."

"Since they constitute such an important and desirable group, others of the Long Island School types are shown in plate 86.  Known makers of bird decoys similar to those shown include Nelson Verity (1861-1954) of Seaford, Obadiah Verity(ca 1870-1940) of Massapequa, Frank Kellum (1865-1935) Babylon, T.Carman (1860-?) of Amityville, Al Ketchum of Copiague, John Lee Baldwin of Babylon and many others in the area around Amityville."

Mackey presents no documentation for the above "names" for what he calls "Long Island School".  So what Mackey seems to be claiming is that there is a Long Island School of shorebird decoys which are all patterned on decoys "attributed"to H.F.Osborn" from Bellport.  Mackey places the origin of these decoys in Suffolk County not Nassau County.

Mackey also does not shows any photos of the decoys he says were made by the "Long Island School" decoy carvers.  In Plate 86, we see decoys that Mackey called Osborn types, but they are not attributed to a particular person.  Mackey also wrote, "William Southard of Bellmore, working early in the present century made one large rig marked JB.  They are of the best quality."  So according to Mackey, the way to identified William Southard decoys is that they are all marked with "JB".  This would mean that the decoys called Southard's today should all be marked "JB", or the decoys on the market today called Southard's aren't the snipe stool Mackey was writing of.

The names Obadiah Verity and William Southard would be taken taken from Mackey's list of names and be used by George Combs Sr. and Jr., and Bud Ward to establish Verity and Southard as decoy makers, which eventually will became part of the fabricated fable of the Andrew Verity "tape recording", on which  Andrew Verity purportedly identified Obadiah Verity" and "Will Southard" as the makers of the heretofore Osborn and Osborn type decoys (see the Museums at Stony Brook's catalog/book Gunners Paradise for the undocumented story by George Combs Sr., page 25).


                                      The Art Of The Decoy by Adele Ernest, 1965

 Plate 22 -"sandpiper" description sandpiper Long Island New York c.1880 "Henry F. Osborn" style (.c1880).   In 1880 he had been dead for seven years.

 Plate 28. "sandpiper"- Sandpiper Long Isand" no attribution as to maker.

 Plate 32. "Black -Breasted  Plover Feeding" no attribution as to maker.

All of the above decoys would be listed today as "Obadiah Verity decoys".

                           Decoy Collectors Guide, Hal Sorenson  August -September, 1965

Page 25 photos "Some Long Island Yellowlegs" Collection of Harold B. Evans Jr."  The Yellowlegs at the top of the page: "Greater(or winter) Yellowlegs by George B. Robert Mastic, L.I. about 1880 Carved wings."

 I am not sure if he is referring to George W. Robert from Mastic who was born in 1880, but none of the Robert family made the decoy.  This decoy today would be considered a classic "William Southard" by collectors.  This decoy is also said to have come from Mastic which is somewhat farther east than Bellport in Suffolk County, and once again, not placed in Nassau County.

                                 1971 Milton (Milt) C. Weiler portfolio Shorebird Decoys, text by William                                            J.Mackey Jr.

Plate 19: Whimbrel and a cork Sanderling is listed as by H.F.Osborn.
Plate 20: Yellow legs and Surf snipe by The Seaford Carvers.
Plate:23: Black-bellied Plover By the Verity's.
   
All of the above decoys would be called Obadiah Verity or Verity family decoys today, except for the Yellowlegs in plate 20, which would be called a William Southard

                                                               1972- July 2nd
                                                        William J. Mackey Jr. Dies
                                              The King is dead long live the Princes.
                                Mackey was definitely the King of decoy accumulation.
                               
                                       Decoy Magazine September/October 1991

In an article written by early decoy collector William H.Purnell Jr., he writes that when he first met Bill Mackey.  Mackey had invited to him, "to come see his collection as he had over 7,000 decoys." No collector/dealer would be the King of decoy collectors after Mackey. The void would be filled by many princes.  These collectors/dealers were always searching for new discoveries in boat houses and garages, barns and basements, but they also began acquiring decoys from Mackey's estate, starting with the famous Richard A. Bourne Auctions of Hyannis, Massachusetts.  The now famous decoys from these auctions, the great and common, have circulated throughout the decoy collecting world over the last 45 years.  Some of the decoys from these auctions which had sold for moderate prices then as H.F. Osborn's and Osborn types, today command prestigious sums of money as Verity's and Southard's.

Some early collectors on Long Island were Doug Rogers, Bud Ward, George Combs Sr. and Jr., Bill Joeckel, Ronnie McGrath, Malcolm Fleming two different Frank Murphy's, Harvey Richardson, Ruth and Ed Call, Dick Cowan, Dick Healy, Gil Herzy and many others.  They met informally at each other's houses and traded decoys and sold decoys.  Ruth and Ed began to informally get together where they mostly traded decoys in the beginning.  That changed with the Mackey auctions.  Now money became the driving force in decoy collecting.

Bud Ward would become the most influential of the Long Island collector/dealers from Long Island, and he really loved the shorebird decoys called H.F. Osborn.  In 1972, these decoys were not high end decoys.  Bud Ward changed all that when he began touting how great the decoys were he now called William Southard and Obadiah Verity.  Bud especially liked the ones he called Obadiah Verity's.  His influence on the direction the value of theses decoy was so great that in 2000, Sotheby's /Guyette & Schmidt from the Dr James McCleery auction, a feeding decoy listed as by Obadiah Verity. was the 10th highest priced decoys sold at auction in the year 2000, selling for $156,000.
     

 1973-1974: The Richard Bourne Auction Company sells some of the William J. Mackey Jr.'s Collection; The famous Mackey Auctions.  These auctions will be a pivotal moment in decoy collecting.  Most of the early collectors were at the auctions, including Dr James McCleery who         purchased the Charles Bunn Curlew for $10,500.00, which set the auction record price for a decoy at time.  This hollow Curlew was said to have been the center piece of Mackey's collection.

     In the Mackey auctions the decoys that are today referred to as made by Verity and Southard are still listed as made by H.F.Osborn or Osborn types.

                                     1973- American Decoys by Quintana Colio
    Quintana Colio was Mackey's photographer, traveling and collecting companion.
  On page 73, we find a feeding plover and a feeding knot both listed as by "H.F. Osborn, Bellport".
                                    Today they would be by Obadiah  Verity.

                      1974 -Decoys of the Atlantic Flyway by Gorge Ross Starr Jr. M.D.
           On page 75, Black-breasted plover made in 1830 by Henry F. Osborn of Bellport, L.I."
    This decoy would be identified today as made by Obadiah Verity or a Verity family member.
      It is a repaint that would be today be attributed to Wilbur A. Corwin, Bellport, L.I.

                                        1975-1979: The Period of Transformation
                           
During this period the undocumented H.F.Osborn and Osborn style/type shorebird decoys will become the undocumented Obadiah Verity and Will Southard shorebird decoys.  What was reason for the decoys  to change from Osborn and Osborn types decoys to Obadiah Verity and William Southard?  The transformation came mainly from the campaigning efforts of three well-known Long Island decoy collectors/dealers, Bud Ward, George"Pop"Combs Sr. and George Combs Jr.  The Combs' were also carvers.

There was no strong following for the Osborn attribution.  It was Mackey who had attributed them to "H.F. Osborn"and "Osborn types". Collectors had just unquestioningly gone along with what Mackey said and Ernest who was influenced by Mackey, had written in their books in 1965.  This name change produced no backlash from the decoy collecting world.  A little confusion about who made them, but no great outcry.  Once Bud and the Combs duo had gotten the auction house to start identifying the decoys as Verity's and Southards, they were on their well way establishing the new names.  Collectors and institutions started to get on board the Verity& Southard train.

Collectors are always a revolving and evolving group of people, older collectors being replaced by new collectors, evolving into self-declared decoy experts.  Historical decoy knowledge is disseminated by the unknowledgeable to the unknowledgeable.

Many of the collectors /dealers in the decoy market in the 1970's were people who had known Bill Mackey and had dealings with him.  The early collectors had relationships with each other as it was a very small world and out of it came people who were supposed to be the experts of their areas.  Documentation or research was non-existent or minimal at best.  Collectors would rely on the words of the "experts"as proof as to who the makers were.

Bud Ward and the Combs's decided for whatever reason that H.F. Osborn wasn't the maker and that the shorebird stool were not made in Suffolk County, but instead in Nassau County.  Nassau County just happened to be the county that Bud Ward and the Combs' all lived in.

Of the three, Bud had the most influence in the decoy world.  He became an adviser, confident buyer and consignor to the the auction houses.  He was also an adviser to major collectors.  Bud had the knack to find the right bird for the right buyer.  A lot of his success was due to the fact Bud was fun to be around.  He was very entertaining.   He told great stories.  He was very opinionated and could be combative.  He knew where most of the bones were buried the fakes, re-heads or repaints.  But he was also a gunner, fisherman and a bayman, who always seemed to have the a stub of a cigar clinched between his teeth.  He made his early living from his fish store, and later by selling decoys, but the one thing above everything else; he was highly trusted.  People always brought him birds to get his opinion on their value or condition or maker.  He placed many great birds into major collections. Bud developed clientele that would pay top dollar for great birds.  More than once a decoys he had sold would come to auction. He would buy it back many times at a bargain price and flip it at some point in the future for a profit.  One of Buds best know clients was Dr. James McCleery, but Bud had buyers in all strata of decoy collecting.

Bud didn't think all that much of cork stool, but he knew that Dick Cowan sure did, and when he found great cork birds he contacted Dick and hammered him on the price.  He got good money from collectors that no one else would have attempted.  He knew his clients and told them what they needed to have in their collections.  When Bud dangled great cork stool under Dick's nose, he was a goner.  Bud knew Dick was the only guy who would pay what Bud was asking for cork stool and Dick usually ran a tab with him.  I did the same when I got my hands on great cork birds. Dick Cowan was the first person I called.  I too love cork birds but as Bud would say, "When you're a dealer, everything's for sale".  In my opinion, cork stool are some of the best decoys ever produced on Long Island and they are really undervalued.  The snobbery of the cork is inferior to wood decoys started long ago.

By the mid 1970's Bud and the Combs' (but especially Bud) had begun to exert considerable influence on the decoy market and the auction houses.  They became some of the Long Island decoy experts, but it was Bud Ward who became "The" expert on L.I. gunning stool.  It was thought by most that his word was as good as gold when it came to decoys, especially L.I.decoys.  That is what had made it so easy for Bud to make the claim for Verity& Southard.

The last time I can remember Bud exerting his influence was in 1996.  Bud was suffering from terminal cancer and was in the end stage, yet there he was at Richard Oliver's October auction in Delmarva, Maryland, and still buying!  Bud and I were looking over the shorebird decoys that would be coming up that day. Bud pointed out lot 588, cataloged as: "A Fine Obadiah Verity School Peep in Original Paint and Condition."  Bud said that's a Combs.(George Combs Sr.).  He went right to Richard Oliver and told him who had made lot 588 and it was pulled instantly from the auction.  I wonder what collector owns that bird today?

    1975:  In the Spring North American Decoys magazine is found a memorial to Milt Weiler who had passed away in the fall of 1974.  A reproduction of a painting by Weiler is used in the memorial.  It is of a Stevens Brothers Whistler and a "Nelson Verity " peep, with the caption, "Capt. Nelson Verity Surf Snipe Seaford, Long Island."  This decoy today would listed and sold as an Obadiah Verity.

                                                     1976: The Bird Decoy: An American Art Form
                                                    Edited by Paul A. Johnsgard
                                                   

Obadiah is almost there.

In this book's shorebird section we find four decoys listed as" Obadiah Verity" all from the Bud Ward collection.  On Page 28, we find a Black-bellied plover attributed to Obadiah Verity (1860-1910); reference lists Mackey's book 1965, from the Bud Ward collection.  Mackey lists Obadiah Verity as living (1870-1940) Bud dates are (1860 -1910).  There were many Obadiah Verity's from the Seaford area and for years after the the Combs' and Ward claim for Verity and Southard, it would be debated which of the many Obadiah Verity's it was who had made the decoys, which is incredible because there is no documentation ever presented for any of the Obadiah Verity's as the maker.

Page 15,  we find two B.B. Plovers.  One bird is from the Herrick rig, both birds said to be Obadiah Verity's work from the Bud Ward collection.

Page 162, Yellowlegs by William Southard c.1880, Bud Ward Collection.

Page 172, (Peep) by Obadiah Verity (1860-1910), Bud Ward Collection.

This book firmly plants the Obadiah Verity and Southard flags for the decoy collectors and auction houses and writers.  From then until the present, these decoys, for the most part, wold be listed and cataloged as Verity's and Southard's, but the H.F.Osborn attribution would still pop up occasionally.

   1977: Part 1 North American Decoys magazine, page 13, there are three Black bellied plovers from the Herrick family listed as by Obadiah Verity.  Newbold L.Herrick had said they were made by Ben Verity from the Gilgo Inlet Life Saving Station only nine years before, which can be found in the 1966 Mackey appraisal for the donation to the Museums at Stony Brook.

  1979: Winter North American Decoys magazine, Page 32, photo of a Yellowlegs which would today be called a Southard, is still listed as a "H.F.Osborn Bellport, Long Island, c.1846".

 1979:  The fictional story of George Combs Sr. visit with Andrew Verity in a nursing home where he claimed Andrew had identified the decoys as being made by Obadiah Verity and Will Southard.  This added to the Verity/Southard myth (see Gunners Paradise, page 25, in a section called "A Trio of Greats" William Bowman,Thomas Gelston and Obadiah Verity.

The Combs story is obviously a fabrication, but it would cement the two attributions of Verity and Southard as the makers. These attributions have lasted up until today, even though there never has been any documented evidence for Verity and Southard.

Why did Bud decide the decoy were Verity's and Southhard's?  Perhaps he really believed they were the makers, but he knew he had no documentation.  The reason may be simply that Bud and the Combs' decided they could take some low-end decoys and turn them into more expensive decoys.

The couple of times when I asked Bud about the Pop Combs visit to see Andrew and the alleged tape recording George Combs Sr. claimed to have made of the event,  Bud would make a face and grunt.  I had the feeling that George Combs Sr. came up with the story and Bud didn't challenge it because it helped him in his goal of establishing Verity and Southard as the makers.

I and others repeatedly ask George Combs Jr. to hear the tape recording that he claimed to have of his father's conversation with Andrew.  Even the the museum's history researcher at Stony Brook Museums was not allowed to hear it.  He would not let anyone hear it always saying he couldn't let anyone hear it because he was going to use it in a future book that he never wrote.  This excuse was of course ridiculous.  You should want everyone to hear poor old Andrew "Grubie" Verity nearly on his death bed call out, "Diah".

For me, when looking at the decoys called Obadiah Verity and William Southard, in my opinion, the decoys were made by the same person or persons who worked very close together.

A Tern decoy pictured on page 58, plate 38 in Mackey's book is assigned it to Nelson Verity.  This decoy at the time did not fit the profile of what had been called Osborn and Osborn type decoys.  This Tern and its rig-mates later became Obadiah Verity Terns, and again with out any documentation being presented.

The decoys called Verity's and Southard's have been found all over Long Island, and even in other states, so there is no reason to tie the decoys to Nassau County.  All roads once again lead to the Herrick's and their shorebird donation to the Museums at Stony Brook.
                                                         

April 18, 1959:

    When Newbold L.Herrick donates shorebird decoys to the Museums at Stony Brook, he lists the decoys known today as Obadiah Verity's as made by Capt. Ben Verity, Life Saving Station, Gilgo Inlet (Nassau County).

 The decoys that are known today as Will Southard's, N.L.Herrick said were made by Capt. Dan Havens, Moriches, L.I. (Suffolk County).

                                                          September 20, 1966:
         The Mackey Appraisal of the donation of thirty three shorebird decoys to the Museums at Stony Brook, he lists decoys by Nelson Verity (Tern ), Dan Havens, and Ben Verity.  No Obadiah Verity is mentioned.

                                                       Decoy Magazine, Fall, 1982
         On the cover of the fledgling Decoy Magazine which was then a quarterly and had begun  printing only two years before in 1980, shows the contemporary made sign that reads "O.Verity Decoy Maker".  There are shorebirds placed around the sign in the sand that Bud Ward  claimed were made by Obadiah Verity.  In the "Contents"section on page 3, it says that all the, "Obadiah Verity shorebirds" on the cover are from the Bud Ward collection.
     
On pages 18-19 of the issue is a short non informative "article" titled, "Obadiah Verity Classic Long Island decoy maker".  This is mostly a pictorial piece and has very little text; "Obadiah Verity (1870-1940), Massapequa", not Seaford, and there is no documentation presented for an Obadiah Verity as a decoy  maker. The Photographs consist of two famous duck stool pairs. A pair of Broadbill and a pair of Mergansers, and a feeding B.B.Plover; all are from the Bud Ward Collection.

Typically with decoy fabrications we find statements like this, "Very Little is known about Verity;"
This statement is interesting in the fact that Bud Ward stated that  Obadiah is said to have died in 1940.  Why would there be a mystery about a guy who died in 1940 on Long Island!  What he should have said was that nothing is known about any Obadiah Verity making decoys.

The article says that, "Although Verity's decoys are often underrated", which translates to undervalued, (but Bud was changing that.  The birds in the article had been exhibited at The Mid-Atlantic Wildfowl Festival held in Virginia Beach.  Bud was spreading the Verity gospel everywhere he went.

The article also quotes Bud's good friend George H. Purnell Jr. who was also pushing the Verity agenda.  He says, "Verity decoys are in the same class with Crowell, Cobb,,Bowman and Shourds."  The Verity myth would continue to be accepted as fact and the decoys called Verity's would continue to increase in value.

                                 Bringing the decoys back home to Suffolk County

Were the Decoys that been called Osborn's and then Verity's really made in Suffolk County as first asserted and not in Nassau County as later claimed?  There is a circumstantial possibility that this is the case.  There is no evidence or documentation for any of the Verity's or Southard from Seaford, Massapequa or Baldwin as makers of the decoys that are attributed to them today.

The donated Herrick decoys came with two L.L.Bean baskets.  When interviewing Orson D. Munn Jr., he had told me of the two L.L.Bean baskets filled with snipe stool that had once been in the basement of his house on Gin Lane, known as "The Arches".  Orson said at some unknown time, someone had stolen the two baskets of shorebird stool, and that is why he only had the two Bunn snipe left that he consigned to Julia & Guyette in the September 1986 auction, as they had been sitting on a mantel upstairs, and not in the basket in the basement.  That Julia &Guyett auction had listed the two decoys as by "William Bowman" over the objections of Orson who had told them they were made by Charles Bunn when he consigned them.  After he received his catalog with the shorebirds listed as by Bowman, he once again told the auction house they were by Bunn, saying he had no idea who this Bill Bowman was.

In July 2006, Joe Jannsen, Orson Munn, Donal C. O'Brien and I visited the Long Island Museums at Stony Brook to meet with curator Joshua Ruff.  The reason for the visit was to have Orson compare the Herrick donated decoys to the stool from his basement.  Orson looked at the decoys from the Herrick donation and proclaimed them to be identical to his fathers missing snipe stool, and not just the "Bowman's".  Joshua was told by Orson that the decoys he was calling Bowman were really made by Charles Bunn (see Decoy Magazine November/December 2015, page 18, "The Final Chapter on Charles Bunn").

As I have written in the past, when I broached the subject with Orson that maybe one of the Herrick's had taken the two baskets of snipe stool, he bristled and was actually offended that I would suggest the Herrick's would steal the decoys from the basement.  I never actually said that the Herrick's stole them.  I was merely speculating on a possibility.  I then went on to say maybe his father had given the decoys to the Herrick's without his knowing it.  Orson wasn't happy with that suggestion either, so I dropped the subject.  I had a feeling Orson had a suspect in mind as the thief,  and it most likely wasn't a peer.

Orson Munn Sr. was an extremely close friend of  Newbold L.Herrick who donated the two L.L.Bean baskets of snipe stool to the Museums at Stony Brook that are judged by Orson to be identical to the missing Munn decoys and baskets.  I believe there is more than a good chance that the two baskets of snipe stool donated by Newbold L.Herrick are the very same missing Munn snipe stool and the two L.L. Bean baskets from Orson's basement, which would put the decoys' origins in Southampton, Suffolk County, and not Nassau County as claimed by Bud Ward and the Combs'.

There was never any documentation for any of the many Obadiah's or for Will Southard as decoy carvers, and there is no documentation that I have found for H.F. Osborn as the maker.  My theory is that these decoys called Verity's and Southard came from Southampton and are part of the Shinnecock School of decoy making, and not the "Long Island School" that Mackey had claimed, later referred to as the"Seaford School".  Bunn was a decoy maker for many years. I have proven that the misattributed "Bowman" shorebird decoys that Bunn made could not have been made until after 1910.  So what was Bunn making prior to 1910? We also have Mrs. Martinez saying of her great grandfather father James Bunn (1810-1895), that he had taught Charles Bunn "all his hunting skills" which I assume would have included the making of decoys.  I feel that there is a good possibility that the "Verity-Southard" decoys are really Charles Bunn or Bunn family decoys.

 

                                         Some dates used over the years for Obadiah Verity
                                                            Mackey (1965): (1870-1940)
                                              Richard Baldwin (1970's): (1830-1901)
              The Bird Decoy, Bud Ward Collection (1976): (1860-1910)
                                 Museums at Stony Brook (1979): (1830-1901)
             Decoy Magazine, Bud Ward collection (1982):(1870-1940)
             
Which proves there is no evidence for any Obadiah as the maker of the decoys.  At the very least you would need a consistent birth and death date, not to mention there is no documentation for any of the Obadiah Verity's as a decoy maker.
                   
                 

             



   



 
   

         
 
   
       

                       
                 













 
     

                           

                         



           








 





 

Dick Richardson "Decoy Expert" Bag Man

Dick Richardson: L.I.D.C.A.'s Vice President and Bag Man

On October 6, 2016,  Joe Jannsen and I presented a PowerPoint presentation on decoy carver, Charles Sumner Bunn (1865-1952), from the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, Southampton, N.Y.  The presentation was held at the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum in Riverhead, N.Y.

We were originally scheduled for a September date. Then we were suddenly bumped to October.  I was fairly certain the switch in dates was due from pressure from the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association.  The Long Island Decoy Collectors Association had installed an exhibit of Broadbill decoys and gunning Broadbill on the Great South Bay, and it was an exceptionally nice exhibit.  The museum also decided to exhibited decoys from their own collection in conjunction with the Broadbill exhibit.

When I was at the museum in August, I noticed that many of the decoys from the museum's collection were incorrectly cataloged as to maker and dating.  For example, Armstrong canvas mallards were listed as made by a Long Island maker in the 1850's and a Dodge black duck listed as made by a L.I. carver with an erroneous date.  I pointed this out to the museum's director.  She explained that the donor of the decoys had made all the attributions when they were donated in the 1970's.  I  told her that Joe Jannsen and I would be glad go over the collection and correctly identify as many as we could.  The director was surprised that none of the L.I.D.C.A. members had pointed out the misattributions, especially when some of its members were attending the opening of their Broadbill exhibit.  With all the  decoys already on display, the director thought it would be the perfect time for our presentation on Charles Bunn.

But the director had no idea of the bad blood between some of the L.I.D.C.A members and myself and I didn't think it was my place to acknowledge this rift. We were giving a talk on Charles Bunn. We were bringing Long Island decoy history to people outside of the "Decoy Community".

I had thought there might have been some sort of protest from some L.I.D.C.A. members, but I was definitely not prepared for what I heard later after our presentation as to what had been going on in the background for weeks prior to the presentation.

What I found out is almost unbelievable and it also shows how low certain  L.I.D.C.A. members will go, Dick Richardson in particular.  Some L.I.D.C.A. members will do anything to try to discredit and stifle the research that we have for Charles Bunn and also to defame me in the process.

I had learned through the grapevine of Dick Richardson's unprecedented treachery in his attempt to have our presentation canceled.  I have been told by reliable sources that Dick Richardson, the Vice President of the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association, harangued the museum's director for weeks prior to our presentation, incessantly begging her to cancel our presentation.

Dick Richardson was L.I.D,C.A's point man on this mission. He and his wife have been associated with the museum for sometime, so Dick was the choice to carry the water for L.I.D.C.A.  But I would not be surprised at all to learn that it was L.I..D.C.A's. President, Timmy Seiger, who sent Dick on this not so covert operation.  Timmy doesn't like to get his hands dirty.  Dick has never appeared to be overburdened with intellect, and as Timmy' V.P., he is the perfect pawn for a dirty job.

I would also not be surprised that in there arrogance, they may have promised their Bowman allies  that they could stop our presentation, which would account for what appears to be Dick  Richardson nonstop childishly desperate antics.  I would not be surprised if he didn't lay on his back and kick his feet like a toddler.  Or maybe he did?

What Dick didn't understand is that I am a member of the New York State Public Historians Association and the Mastic Beach Village Historian, not to mention a contributing writer at Decoy Magazine.  These are called credentials.  Dick has no credentials. He's just another self-appointed decoy expert.
       
                 "expert: an unknowledgeable person possessing a great deal of  confidence"

We had sent the museum an early version of Joe's Bunn PowerPoint.  The museum staff were able to evaluated the quality and credibility of our research prior to our presentation.  And after their review, the museum proclaimed, "This well-researched and illustrated presentation focuses on the extraordinary life and art of Charles Sumner Bunn."  Dick isn't used to dealing with academics.  He is used to dealing with decoy collectors, many of whom are fond of wallowing in ignorance.

Richardson's campaign began when some members of L.I.D.C.A. found out that Joe and I were doing a PowerPoint presentation on Charles Bunn.  Dick Richardson is said to have told the director that he would takes out his decoys if we did our presentation while the L.I.D.C.A. exhibit was still up.  He is also reported to have said that he didn't even want me in the same room with his decoys.  I was also told that Richardson even had the gall to to attend the museum's board of directors meeting to plead his case.  I also heard more than once that Dick Richardson even offered bribes in the form of "generous donations" from L.I.D.C.A. to the museum. Richardson is said to have told the director that, "We have a lot of money", which they would donate some of to the Museum if she would just cancel our presentation.

It is very interesting that the majority of  the L.I.D.C.A. members stupidly voted at the September 2015 meeting to, "STAY OUT OF THE BOWMAN/ BUNN CONTROVERSY."  This was pointed out in Hunting &Fishing Collectibles Magazine November/December 2015 in Ronnie McGrath's "Bowman/Bunn Last Words" on page 11, and this so called "controversy" is a contrived controversy by the Bowman supporters who's position has been proven to have no merit whatsoever.

I would say that by sending Dick Richardson as L.I.D.C.A.'s first bag man to try to stop our presentation for Bunn is not staying out of it.  It is in fact jumping in with both feet and using L.I.D.C.A.'s checkbook to try to pull off their attempted sabotage.  All of Richardson's actions show he is very involved and L.I.D.C.A, was very involved.

I have also heard that the director became totally fed up with Dick's incessant howling.  There are directors who may take bribes in the form of donations, but the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum and it's director is not one of them.

I do wonder how large the bribe would have been. Oh excuse me, "donation", that L.I.D.C.A. was willing to spend. How much was L.I.D.C.A's donation in an attempt silence a messenger of truth?
It's interesting how Dick Richardson always claims he doesn't know anything about the "Bunn / Bowman controversy" and he also claims that he doesn't care anything about who made the decoys. He maintains that he is only interested in Bellport, L.I. decoys.  At least that is what he has told me every time we meet.  Last year when I saw him, he even pretended he didn't know who Ronnie McGrath was.  He referred to Ronnie as, "That guy from Maryland who writes for that other magazine".  I pretended I didn't known who he was talking about.  You act a fool, I will treat you as a fool.

Well apparently Dick has become very interested in the so called Bunn/Bowman controversy, enough for Dick to become L.I.D.C.A.'s very first bag man.  Hopefully in the future Dick won't behave in such an unethical manner by trying to offer money as leverage in a battle that he and his handlers can't win on documented evidence.

And all the  L.I.D.C.A. membership should be ashamed of its leadership's conduct prior to our presentation.  Dick should also stop telling people that he is not involved in the "Bunn/Bowman controversy".

The facts are there have been thirteen years of "controversy" perpetrated by people who have no facts, only an agenda.  Another fact is that more and more collectors /dealers are accepting Bunn as the maker.

The Bowman supporters are finally failing to counter documentation with fable and fabrication.
This should have happened years ago and it would have, except for those people who have pursued an agenda of denying historical documentation, including some members of L.I.D.C.A.

Dick Richardson's late brother Harvey was a very early decoy collector and  Harvey was a really nice person.  Some of the birds from Harvey's collection were featured in Adele Earnest's book The Art Of The Decoy and in the Decoy Collectors Guide.  It was  only after Harvey's death that Dick became a self-anointed decoy expert.  I'm fairly sure Harvey would find it extremely humorous that his brother is now masquerading as a decoy expert.

 



       
     



       

H&FC Magazine's Fiction Writer

Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine's Second Best Fiction Writer, Francis D. Murphy



     Over the years, Frank Murphy has written  so called "articles" for Decoy Magazine and now for H&FC Magazine.  His articles are absolutely worthless to the novice or serious decoy collector.
The only facts that can be found in his writings are facts that have no bearing on the decoys in his stories.


It is quite evident that Stanley Van Etten's magazine has no standards and does no fact checking, which is why Frank Murphy is a perfect fit for H&F Collectibles Magazine.  Frank has been a decoy collector for years and is a charter member of L.I.D.C.A., and he is another self-proclaimed decoy expert who has never done any firsthand research on Long Island decoys.  He was always a low-end collector and a protégé for Bob Gerard and George Combs Jr.


When I joined the L.I.D.C.A., most of the early members had left the club.  Frank Murphy, Bob Gerard, Bud Ward and others no longer came to meetings.  The Combs, George Sr., "Pop" Sr. and George Jr. had moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore.  But many of those old members did come to the June Homecoming meeting dinner, which the club no longer does.


The club had blown it's self apart in the late 1980's and early1990's.  The two main antagonist were Bud Ward vs. Bob Gerard who were at odds over many issues.  The annual decoy show was held at the Ward Melville High School and they were great shows.  I think the last show held there was somewhere between 1990-1992.  The rumor was that Bob Gerard had convinced the high school not to rent the space to the club anymore. 


A club member suggested we do the annual show in East Hampton L.I. in partnership with the Rotary Club, of which he was also a member.  We held two shows in East Hampton that were disastrous, and we had a dwindling bank account and membership.  It did not look good for the future of the club.  We were also mailing out newsletters to over 100 people, but we only had around 35 paying members.  We had around $1,200.00 in the bank.


I was asked to run for the president position. I agreed that if I won, I would hold the position for only one year, but in that year, I would try to breath some life back into the association.  I ended up staying in that position for three years, and when I stepped down, the club had over $13,000.00 in the bank because of 3 straight years of profitable well-attended shows.  We also had signed up many new (paying) members during that time.


The success of the club during my tenure as president brought back some of the old members who had left. That is when Bob Gerard and Frank Murphy came back.  All the fresh new members were like blood in the water to the sharks, especially Bob Gerard.  All these new members, many neophytes, represented fresh, gullible collectors to pawn off unwanted, fake or worthless decoys on to.  Some of the older members who had never left the club wanted me to prevent Gerard and Murphy from returning to the club. I said that I would not attempt to ban anyone, not even Gerard and Murphy.


Frank Murphy and Bob Gerard were always the proverbial turds in the punch bowl.  At meetings they objected to any new ideas members might have to try to improve the club.  After Gerard died, Frank assumed the position as head curmudgeon.  The only ideas that Frank usually came up with were ridiculous.  Like deputizing club members as a security force for the annual decoy show who would watch for thieves stealing decoys and people slipping in for free.  The attendance for the shows had fallen off and Frank thought that the drop in the gate was due to people slipping in.  His security force would put an end to the huge number people slipping in for free, which of course was just as fictional as his writings.  The only good idea Frank ever had was to raise the entry fee to the annual decoy show.


However any time Frank Murphy decides to write what he calls an "article", well that's never a good idea.  For example, his two so-called articles on Long Island shorebird decoys (Part One& Part Two) found in Hunting&Fishing Collectibles Magazine, July /August 2015 issue, "Long Island Shorebird Decoys Early Long Island Decoys" and July/August 2016 issue "Long Island Shorebird Decoys The Golden Age."

                                                                Part One


On page 46, it begins with a fictional story which is totally devoid of any facts pertaining to the decoys pictured in his fable, and nothing on early L.I. shorebird decoys.  The facts that are presented in Frank's fable have nothing to do with the decoys in the accompanying photos in Frank's story, and once again, have on bearing on early L.I. decoys.  Frank also writes with the simplicity and imagination of an 8th grade English student who envisions his future to be a great America writer.  His writings are painful to get through; chalk on the blackboard screech painful.  Some of Frank writings are reminiscent of a Joel Barber scenario from his book Wildfowl Decoys.  Frank Murphy's so-called "article" is pure fiction!


And once again, we find editor Stanley Van Etten does not understand that there is a difference between fiction and fact.


Fictional: Imaginary, made-up, unfitted, fabricated, myth.


Fact: Anything true, Anything actually existent.  Any statement strictly true.


I would advise, no make that urge, Editor/ Publisher Van Etten to have theses two definitions placed on a large sign and install it in his office where it will be readily accessible to his view at all times.


Frank Murphy begins his story with a fictional, nameless old man who has no bearing on the decoy photographs used in his story.  "The old man was just leaving the haberdashery shop.  He was sporting a brand new hat and why not? For tomorrow was Easter Sunday."  There are nearly two pages of fiction on "the old man".


Frank then tries his hand at anthropology when he writes of Long Islands (mythical) 13 Indian Sub- tribes.  At one time all Long Island school children learned that there were 13 original Indian tribes on Long Island when the Europeans arrived.  This Eurocentric absurdity has not been taught in public or private schools, or accepted by historians, anthropologists, colleges and universities for over 30 years.  Today it is accepted that two Algonquian speaking nations lived on Long Island when the Dutch began their invasion of what would become New York.  Some of what is today western Long Island, including Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County where part of the larger territory of the Lenape Nation (also known as the Delaware Indians).  The Eastern End of Long Island (Suffolk County) was the territory of what today is referred to as the Montauk or Montaukett Confederacy, which is wrong as Montauk was actually a place name or village site, not a tribal name.


It is interesting that Frank claims Indians on Long Island used decoys very sparingly. What would this be based on?  Indians all across the North America used decoys to attract all types of game.  Frank also credits "the white man"with creating the decoys we know today. Really?  I think Charles Bunn made decoys like we know today.


Frank, like most Americans, has no idea what great art was produced by the indigenous people of the Americas for thousands of years prior to metal tools, prior to the arrival of as Frank writes, "the white man", and Europe's iron and steal tools.  Frank most likely gets all his Indian information from old Bonanza episodes.


Frank goes on to describe roothead decoys.  He doesn't know that the majority are not rootheads.  Most are limb heads.  But then, Frank is fiction writer.


Frank also describes a snipe shooting Currier & Ives print without any shorebird decoys in the print.  He tells of the artist who did the painting for the print, and her alcoholic husband who died when he fell down his stairs.  Nothing about early L.I. shorebirds.


Frank also writes of Henry Hudson seeing shorebirds on his way up the Hudson, which adds absolutely nothing to the knowledge of who made the decoys in the photos in Frank's little story.  And once again, nothing about "early Long Island shorebird decoys".


On page 47, he has 3 decoys he lists as by John Henry Verity (1788-1866).  There has never been any proof for this attribution and Frank presents no proof for his claim for J.H.Verity as the maker.  Frank also shows two shorebird decoys; he attributes one to George Verity and the other to Theodore Rogers rig, and once again, there has never been any documentation for both attributions, and again, Frank presents on documentation for the two attributions.


On page 49, there are three East End plover decoys.  No one knows who the maker of these decoys was, however, Frank refers to them as the work of Lafayette Seabury (see Long Island Decoy Forum: The Seabury Fabrication).  The synopsis of the Seabury fabrication was that it was perpetrated by Timmy Sieger, the present president of L.I.D.C.A (see the September/October 2001 issue of H&FC Magazine in the section called "My Favorite 5").


But where else would you go for decoy fiction than H&F Collectibles Magazine?  This is where Tim establishes Seabury as the maker of the plovers, without presenting any evidence at all for his claim, and he hasn't any.


Frank has photos of other shorebirds listed George Verity and Theodore Rogers, once again, presenting no evidence for the claim for the maker as none has been offered in the past.


To finish up, Frank continues his fictitious story of the nameless old man going to bed (as visions of shore birds danced in his head). This is so embarrassingly sophomoric, that you would assume  it was written by a child.  When I have ask non decoy collectors to read this short story, none can believe that anyone would print Frank's fable. Many wondered why the editor hadn't rejected it.


In the future, when Stanley publishes fiction it should be labeled as such, and not referred to as an article.  I do realize it would be harder to fill his pages, and it calls into question everything printed in his magazine.


I do have an idea for an article For H&F Collectibles Magazine.  Stanley shpuld ask Ronnie McGrath to write the story he told me about years ago.  Ron had said Bill Mackey sold him some roothead shorebirds. Ronnie later found out that they were fakes. He was hopping mad and called Mackey threatening to expose him. Mackey claimed they were real. Then Mackey sent early collector/dealer King Hemming to try to get back the rootheads.  After lots of negotiating, in the end Mackey, through King Hemming,  had to give Ronnie a bunch of decoys to get back his fake rootheads.  Now that would be a good story for Ronnie to write.  That would be something Ronnie actually knows about.


Next will be my review of Part II of Frank Murphy's second "article" on L.I. shorebird decoys, "The Golden Age".

Charles Bunn and the Gilded Age

In the articles in Decoy Magazine on Charles Sumner Bunn and his work, Joe Jannsen and I have referenced the Martinez transcripts.

The Martinez transcripts were compiled from tape recordings made in the 1980's and 1990's by David Martine, Charles Bunn's great-grandson. These tapes were made in order to capture the memories of Charles Bunn's daughter, Mrs.Alice Martinez (1901-1992), Mrs. Martinez' son, David W. Martinez (1922-1987), and her daughter and David's mother Marjorie C. Martinez (1928-1998).  Much of the transcripts were were used in David Martine's book on his family titled, Time And Memories Histories And Stories of A Shinnecock-Apache-Hungarian Family printed in 2013.  Some of transcripts may not be accurate in all instances as memories are not always accurate, especially in your late 80's and early 90's.  For instance, when Mrs.Martinez said she thought he used chestnut wood for his decoys, Bunn actually used native white cedar.  But much of it is very accurate and is backed up with independent corroborating evidence, sometimes from multiple sources.  I was given the transcript by David Martine at the beginning of my research into Bunn's life.  They have been instrumental in our research.


The photo of Bunn at the 1906 Sportsmen's Show at Madison Square Garden was not known of until 1993 when Charles Bunn's last surviving daughter, Helen Bunn Smith, passed away.  The photo came into the possession of David Martine.  But it wasn't until 1997 when John A. Strong published his book, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island From Earliest Times to 1700.  In the book John wrongly date the photo c.1920 and it would not be until 2002 when I discovered the book that the decoy collecting world learned of the photo and Charles Bunn.


The only reference to Bunn as carver prior to my research was Bob Gerard's Decoy Magazine May/ June 1997 "article", which was the reprinted chapter in Gaynell Stone's book on the Shinnecock people.  However, Gerard did not, or could not, tie the Bunn stool to those that were being called Bowman's because the photo that would do so was not discovered until 2002.


The description of Charles Bunn's s booth at the old Madison Square Garden Sportsmen's Show undoubtedly came from family oral history and the now well known 1906 photo.  In the transcripts she mentions her father having a "concession stand" at the annual Sportsmen's Show where he "sold all he brought (decoys) and took many orders."


In Bunn's last interview in April of 1952, he relates that he had been too sick to work but that "the sports are still after me and I could sell all I could make."  The article also tells of his being famous for his decoys and that he had attended the Sportsmen's Show annually for many years.


In the transcripts are many references to Bunn as a professional hunting guide.  We also learn the names of some of his clients and that he also gave hunting lessons to the sons of the wealthy "summer colonists".  Bunn also taught them and their children to sail.  The transcripts have been instrumental in connecting Bunn to other documented sources, as in the cases of the Munn, Edgar and Ives families. 


In the transcripts, Mrs.Martinez spoke of Charles Bunn's grandfather, James Bunn (1810-1895), when she said, "My father learned all his hunting skills from his grandfather James Bunn."  Among those hunting skills Charles Bunn learned would have been the making and use of bird decoys.  For most of James Bunn's life, he would have hunted for his family and most likely for the market. It would only be in the last fifteen years of his life that new era of economic opportunities came to Southampton. Southampton had been a rustic backwater made up of baymen, farmers, whalers and shopkeepers. This all changed when the Long Island Railroad came to town.


As a boy, Charles Bunn would have been a witness to the laying of the tracks and the building of the first Southampton Railroad Station in 1871.  The Southampton Station would be instrumental in Charles Bunn creating the very successful career that he enjoyed thoughtout his lifetime as a decoy maker, guide, farmer, and by giving hunting and sailing lessons.  Charles Bunn was born at just the right time to ride the wave of the Gilded Age and develop into the greatest shorebird decoy carver in America.


Prior to the railroad coming to Southampton, Southampton would have been a long tiring ride by stagecoach or wagon.  Boats were the only other option with its inherent hazards.  The railroad brought quick access to Long Island's South Fork.  Now the wealthy created what Mark Twain christened the "Gilded Age".  The wealthy who came to Southampton were a combination of "old money" and "new money" just as it is today.  


In 1877, the first "summer colonists",  Dr, T. Gallard Thomas, a renowned surgeon, began building his "summer cottage" named "The Dunes"on what is now prestigious Gin Lane.  Orson Munn Jr's. home, "The Arches", was also built on Gin Lane by his father around 1928.  In 1877, when the first summer home was built, Charles Bunn would have been 14 years of age and in school. However, he would have alredy spent much of his life learning and working with his grandfather.  He would have been learning from a very early age the skills that he would need to survive on the Shinnecock Reservation, as rural children did then and still do today.


The new summer colonists brought a windfall of cash to Southampton and to the Shinnecock Reservation. Many of the local Southampton people lived a subsistence lifestyle.  They followed seasonal opportunities; fin-fishing, shell-fishing, farming, market gunning, whaling and mercantile interests.  The new summer colonists needed servants, laborers, gardeners, hunting guides, sailing instructors and grocers. By 1890, The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club offered employment to many of the men living on the reservation.  Charles Bunn's brother, Oscar Bunn, became a well-known golf pro there.


All these new sources of income on Long Island's East End were especially welcome in the face of a rapidly declining whaling industry.  Many of Long Island's East Enders, including many from Shinnecock Reservation, sailed around the world on whaling ships, or found work supplying and servicing the whaling industry, which by 1870 was in steep decline. Whales were becoming scarce after their unrestrained slaughter, and whale oil lamps were being replaced by the emerging petroleum industry's kerosene lamps and gas light. Additionally, electricity in urban areas began to light America's dark nights.


Charles Bunn's grandfather James most likely made decoys.  Being where he lived and his economic situation, it is doubtful that he would have bought decoys.  He may have also used call ducks and geese as his grandson Charles Bunn did, but for snipe shooting, he would have used wooden and or cork stool.


Charles Bunns father, David Bunn (1829-1876), was a whaler and was said by Mrs. Martinez to have carved whale ivory. Whether or not he made gunning stool is unknown.  As a whaler he was away from the reservation much of time, which is the reason Charles Bunn would have learned his hunting skills from his grandfather, and not his father who died when Charles Bunn was around 11 years old.


Most likely a carving tradition existed at the Shinnecock Reservation, spanning at least from the 19th and 20th centuries, and at least in the Bunn family.  There may have also been other undocumented carvers present on the reservation.  The Bunn family's artistic endeavors didn't end with Charles Bunn.  His grandson, David Waukus Martinez (1922-1987), was a talented carver of decorative birds and wood sculptures.  He never carved working decoys and he didn't hunt.


David Martine received an Art Degree from the University Oklahoma.  He is best known for his large murals depicting Long Island's native peoples in their daily lives.  At this time, he is the director/curator of the Shinnecock Museum and Cultural Center, a position he has held for many years.

What are the Charles Bunn Cork Decoys

We have both oral and documented history for Charles Bunn as a maker of cork stool, yet there have not been to my knowledge any cork stool that in the past were identified as by William (Bill) Bowman, or to my knowledge there have never been any cork birds offered for sale or exhibited as by Bowman.

In an interview with the late Orson Munn Jr., he told me when he wanted his own duck stool in the 1940's, so his father told him, "Go see Charley Bunn." Orson did just that and he said he "bought Charles Bunn's broadbill and black duck cork stool."   None of the stool that he had bought from Bunn were still in his possession when I met him.  In fact, I sold his last working rig and other old stool he had when he quit gunning in the 1990's.

In the 1952 News Review article on Bunn, it mentions that, "Charles Bunn makes decoys or 'stool' that Long Islanders call the wood and cork replicas of game birds which they attempt to entice the wild variety into gun range."  I know of no cork stool that resemble the classic 1906 floating stool formerly called  William (Bill) Bowman decoys.

So what would Bunn's cork stool look like?

The Decoys Unlimited's Bill Bowman Fable

 
Decoys Unlimited: The Mr. Pinkum/Mrs. Atchelis Story Can't Be True!


 Ted Harmon's Decoys Unlimited has been around for a very long time.And the auction house has been a source of humor for decoy collectors and dealers for just as long. Ted has no idea who made most of the decoys that he sells, and as far as I know, Ted has not done any research on any decoys or their makers, yet he is considered to be a decoy expert.  What Ted really is, is a decoy salesman.
   
 In the decoy collecting world anybody can be a decoy expert . Prior to beginning my research on Charles Bunn in 2002, I was the very same type of "decoy expert", although I never referred to my self as a decoy expert, I just said I was knowledgeable.

All you have to do to be a decoy expert is read all the books on American decoys, retain what you have read, and then just repeat it as sagely wisdom.  Most if not all of the books that feature Long Island decoys are filled with un-researched and dead wrong information.  Theses out of date references are used by Decoys Unlimited to write their catalog descriptions, but occasionally Ted really gets creative all on his own.  I think my all time favorite misattribution by Decoys Unlimited is found below:
 
Decoys Unlimited auction July, 20th 1997  Lot 214 a stick up goose:

 "RARE and IMPORTANT life sized stick-up Canada goose decoy attributed to the Holly family with a few tight checks and small repairs, OP with in use touch- up. From the Admiral "Bull" F.Halsey rig and branded W.F.Halsey (see close up of Halsey brand in the companion photo)
Few, if any stickups by this early and important family of decoy makers exist.     2500 /4500"

The operative word in the above description is "Bull".  The goose decoy actually came from the rig of William F. Halsey (1878-1961) born in Southampton, L.I.  He was a member of the Life Saving Service. In fact, he and Frank D.Warner were both awarded the Gold Life Saving Medal for a harrowing winter rescue on January 22, 1904.  He spent the first part of his service at the Southampton station.  He then transferred to the Quogue station.  His last posting was the Fire Island station until his retirement.  He was also a hunting guide with a huge rig consisting of decoys many different makers.  The goose was part of his rig.

Ted's estimate for the "Rare and  Important" goose decoy was $2500.00 - $4500.00.  It actually sold for $650.00, just a bit lower than Ted's estimate.
                               
                     Ted Harmon's Mr.Pinkum & Mrs.Atchelis Story Debunked

Ted Harmon's mentor is Gary Guyette of Guyette & Deeter Auctions, and it is well-known in the decoy collecting world that Gary Guyette has put out an imperial decree; No one is to utter the name of Charles Bunn in relationship to the decoys that he made!  Gary Guyette wants all the auction houses,dealers and collectors to go along with G&D lock-stepping down the wrong side of history.

So when Jon Frank of Frank & Frank auctions, and formerly of Sotheby's, recently offered two shorebird decoys cataloged as made by Charles Sumner Bunn, Gary got his knickers all in a twist. He was outraged that an auction house would not help him in the perpetual perpetuation of the Bowman fabrication.

From the very beginning Gary Guyette was staunchly against the idea of reattributing the decoys to Charles Bunn, and it has been repeatedly proven that no matter how much researched evidence that we present for Bunn. Gary covers his eyes and goes, "La, la, la, la, la."  Gary has also taught his newest protégé, Jon Deeter, to do the same.

But Gary knows he can count on auctioneer Ted Harmon to back him up as they both continues to sell William Bowman decoys.  However, Ted was not fully onboard with Gary from the very beginning. He was slightly open-minded about my early research for Bunn, at least for the floating stool, if not the shorebird decoys.

On March 10, 2004, Ted wrote a very short e-mail to Joe Engers, which was later printed in Decoy Magazine's "Letters to the Editor".  Ted opens up with, "Great Article on Bowman (Charles Bunn)"
(for the full text see Decoy Magazine, March /April 2004, page 29).

However, a few years later we find another short e-mail from Ted to Hal Herrick, which first appeared in Ronnie McGrath's rebuttal in H&F C Magazine, May/June 2006 page 9.  In the e-mail, Ted claims that he owns a Bowman shorebird with a direct connection to William Bowman from Lawrence, L.I..  Interestingly, Ted had never mention what he calls "My Bowman shorebirds" in his 2004 e-mail to Decoy Magazine.  In this e-mail, Ted presents no evidence for Bowman because there is no evidence for Bowman.  

 Most of what Ronnie presents in all of his rebuttals in H&FC is pure gibberish.  As an example, of Ronnie's fanciful missing or misplaced (non-existent ) "Bowman photo" that he claims Ronnie Bauer once owned (a $10,000 reward has been offered by Joe Engers of Decoy Magazine for evidence of the mythical photo). Like the "missing photo", the e-mail from Ted Harmon to Hal Herrick is typical of the fabricated evidence that the Bowman disciples try to pass off as facts.


                                             H&FC Magazine May /June 2006

Ted Harmon: "My Bowman (shorebird decoy) came from a Mrs. Atchelis who had a home on Martha's Vineyard. She got it from a Mr.Pinkum from Lawrence, Long Island.  Mr Pinkum told her he bought it from a clam digger/bayman named Bill Bowman from Lawrence, Long Island.  She brought the decoy to Stanley Murphy who wrote The Vineyard (decoy) book.  He referred her to me 25 to 30 years ago".                  
                               

                                    A Clinical  Review of Ted Harmon's Bowman Story

 The first reason that I can say unequivocally that the Ted Harmon story of "My Bowman (shorebird decoy)" is a fabrication is because the research produced by Joe Jannsen and myself has proven that Charles Bunn is the real maker of the decoys and there is no evidence for Bowman as a decoy maker period. Case closed.

However, I also know the diehard Bill Bowman supporters reject our research out of hand, especially it seems my latest article in Decoy Magazine proving that the shorebird decoys formerly attributed to Bowman could not have been produced prior to 1910, which is exactly what it does.

The opposition to Bunn continually present wild irrational speculations as to why Bunn could not be the maker of the decoys.  They try to explain away why a group of Bunn shorebird decoys look exactly like the work of two famous artists, Fuertes and Brasher.  Ronnie even absurdly postulates that the two artists may have used "Bowman" shorebird decoys for models. If someone can't see the connection between the art work of Fuertes and Brasher and the Charles Bunn shorebirds, it is because they pretend not to see the connection.

By 2006, it appears Ted Harmon decided to stick his neck way out in order maintain the Bowman fabrication. Ted's little e-mail of "My Bowman shorebird decoy" story masquerading as evidence is used in Ronnie's H&FC Magazine rebuttals three separate times; May/June 2006, July /August 2007, and May/ June-2015.

Ronnie obviously comes from the school that says if you tell a lie enough times it will become the truth.  Ted and Ronnie and Stanley Van Etten present no evidence for Ted's claim to own a shorebird with a direct connection to a Bill Bowman from Lawrence, Long Island.  Ted makes nothing more than an undocumented unsubstantiated statements that can't be true.  On face value, it looks like Teddy is responsible for this little fable.  Ted's narrative seem to intentionally leaves out important information, like the first names of the two main characters in Ted's short fable, Mrs. Atchelis and a Mr. Pinkum.  This makes it much harder to document them, which even if you could document them as existing, it would still mean nothing without some documentation connecting the shorebird to a man Bowman.

My guess would be that there was a woman with the last name Atchelis who had a place on Martha's Vineyard that Ted had known or knew of, who most likely had departed this Earth by the time the story appeared in 2006.  The idea is to be as vague as possible, just like the vagueness of the original Bowman fabrication.  The more vague it is, the harder it is to research.  As for Mr. Pinkum, I have not been able to locate a person with the last name of Pinkum in Lawrence, L.I..
 
Without the first names of the two supposed informants in Ted's story, this eliminates Ted's claim of a Bowman connection for a decoy that he claims to own and had owned for years.  A decoy and story that no one had ever heard of prior to Ronnie's rebuttal.  This type of so-called evidence would never be accepted by academics.  It comes from one undocumented source, Ted Harmon.

It is also very interesting that Teddy refers to the decoy as, "My Bowman shorebird decoy".  More vagaries.  Ted didn't know the species of his "Bowman shorebird decoy".  You would expect "My Bowman Yellowlegs" or "My Bowman Dowitcher".  He presents no photo of what would be a very important decoy, if it were true.

Ted wrote that, "A Mr. Pinkum told her he got it from a clam digger/bayman named Bill Bowman from Lawrence, Long Island."  Ted must have forgotten about the Bowman myth when he wrote this e-mail.  He forgot that Bowman supposedly lived in either Bangor or Old Town, Maine, where he was employed as a sawmill worker or a cabinet maker.  How could he be clam digger and bayman from Lawrence if he lived in Maine?

The Bowman fable also has him living in a tent in the Lawrence marshes, or living in an imaginary bayman's shack, or an equally imaginary, oyster shack where he made many decoys during the summer when he wasn't market gunning and selling dead shorebird and flirting with grandma Herrick.  All the while being a drunk.  Talk about multitasking, but with fiction, all is possible.

No William or Bill Bowman is recorded as living in the Lawrence, Long Island area during the supposed timeline for Bill Bowman, carver.  When people make up these stories, like any of the Bowman fabrications, they never tie up the loose ends because it would expose their fabrications.

Ted's e-mail also refers to, "Stanley Murphy who referred her (Mrs.Atchelis) to him 20-30 years ago."  Thirty years ago would have put it at about 1976 in 2006, at leased 10 years after the Herrick's /Mackey fabrication for Bill Bowman was published in 1966-67 Decoy Collectors Guide.
20 -30 years ago, everyone called them Bill Bowman decoys.  Ted would have had to have documented evidence prior to 1966 for it to have any relevance in establishing Bowman as a carver.

Another problem with the acceptance of Ted's little tale.  The artist /author Stanley Murphy who supposedly guided Mrs. Atchelis to Ted died  in 2003, three years before Ted told his tale. Being in the state of death in 2006, Mr. Murphy couldn't deny or affirm Ted's story.  What a convenient coincidence for Ted.  However, being that you can't confirm the validity of Ted's claim for Mr. Murphy as a source, eliminates him as a source.

So in conclusion Ted's story is just that, a story, void of facts or evidence for Bowman the carver, as is everything printed about Bill Bowman, decoy carver.




 
 



 



   



      





 

Guyette & Deeter Inc. Sell Charles Bunn Decoys

                                                     

Why does Guyette & Deeter still list Charles Bunn Decoys as William Bowman Decoys?

 

Guyette & Deeter Auctions "The Leading And Most Trusted Decoy Auction Firm the World"

More like the Misleading Auction House

In the upcoming July 2016  Guyette & Deeter auction, once again, they offer Charles Bunn decoys listed as by William Bowman (they also offer a William Henry Bennett Curlew that is listed as by Chief Cuffee).  Gary has not yet learned you can't be right if you are wrong.  It's like beating a dead horse but the words that Jackson Parker wrote in 2004 still ring true today.


"It seems that Guyette & Schmidt has not caught up with the latest research on who made the Bowman decoys."  Today you can add the name Deeter to the list, and G&D also has not kept up with the research on William Henry Bennett, the real maker of the "Cuffee" decoys.
                                           
The academics will eventually decide who made the decoys, not an auction house, no matter how self important they think they are.  Auction houses have a bad track record on accuracy, and so far the academics are solidly in support of Bunn. In fact, people outside of the so-called decoy world can't believe anyone would accept the Bowman story at this date.


Another thing Gary hasn't learned, "Be carful of what you ask for."  If my early research for Bunn had been accepted from the beginning, and if G&S hadn't stated that "additional research is necessary" before they could reassign the decoys to Bunn, I may not have kept up my research, and I may not have compiled all the research that I have for the decoys made on Long Island, including the best known shorebird decoys made by Charles Bunn in the early 20th century, not in the late 19th century, Gary.


A few months after my 2004 January / February article in Decoy Magazine, "Charles Sumner Bunn The True maker Of The Bowman Decoys", Guyette & Schmidt auction house's official response to the Bunn article is found in their annual July auction catalog. It is only a cursory acknowledgement of the research compiled for the article on Charles Bunn.  At the time, this was the most important research ever presented on Long Island decoys.  Below is G&S tepid response to this new information.

"Comments on Decoys Historically Attributed to William Bowman"

        "Guyette & Schmidt wishes to acknowledge the ongoing research regarding the maker of the Bowman decoys.  Refer to Decoy magazine Jan/Feb.2004 pages 8-15. We feel additional research is needed particularly with regard to the shorebirds, before changing the attributions that have heretofore have had some historical integrity. It is important to note that additional research is necessary in order for any changes to become universally accepted within the collecting community."


In the 12 years since this statement was printed in 2004 by G&S, a great deal of the  "requested additional research" has been discovered and presented for Charles Bunn, and none for Bowman, which also has been proven to have been a fabrication.  It is extremely difficult to get the requested universal acceptance for Bunn.  Guyette &Schmidt & Deeter, along with some agenda driven dealers, collectors and museums, persist in their refusal for the acceptance of the valid research presented for Charles Bunn.  Charles Bunn was said by pioneer decoy collector Donald C. O'Brien to be, "The Greatest Shorebird Maker Who Ever Lived."


Why does G&D steadfastly support the William "Bill" Bowman fabrication?  What would cause the self proclaimed "Most Trusted Decoy Auction Firm In The World" to act in such an a unprofessional manner?  There is empirical evidence for Bunn as the maker of the decoys and no evidence for Bowman.


An Auction house is supposed to describe an item for sale accurately, to the best of their ability.  Calling these decoys William Bowman decoys is far from accurate, and it is well with in their ability to accurately describe the carvings as to have been made by Charles Sumner Bunn.  I can't believe Gary Guyette doesn't know who the real maker of theses decoys really was.


So why do we find this description in  the G&D April 2016 auction catalog, "Lot 453, Rare greater Yellowlegs alert pose by William Bowman, Lawrence, Long Island last quarter of the 19th century.  Believed by some to have been made by Charles Bunn. Relief wing carving with extended wing tips. Shoe Button eyes slight thigh carving."  Actually the eyes are German black glass, not shoe buttons, but don't let the facts get in the way.  There is also a problem with the sentence, "Believed by some to have been made by Charles Bunn"  Believed is defined as something someone accepts as true or real, i.e. Christians believe that Jesus walked on the sea and rose from the dead.  Those are beliefs, not proven substantiated facts.


It is not a belief that Charles Bunn made the decoys that Gary Guyette likes to call William Bowman decoys. It has been proven that Charles Bunn made the decoys.  That is a fact, not a belief.  And who are the people G&D say "believe" Bunn made the decoys?  They are the people who can read and comprehend what they have read.  Intelligent people who don't have an agenda. People who truly care about the real history of Long Island decoys and their makers.


See May/June 2015 article in Decoy Magazine which shows that the "alert pose" shorebird decoys made in this period by Charles Sumner Bunn were inspired by the art work of Rex Brasher found in the book Birds of America published in 1917.  So it is not a late19th century piece as described by G&D.  It really was made in the first quarter of the 20th century.  I am sure Gary Guyette and Jon Deeter received that issue of Decoy Magazine.


William (Bill) Bowman, decoy maker, is a fabrication that was perpetrated by Bill Mackey and Newbold L. Herrick on the Museums at Stony Brook, and eventually, decoy history.  Newbold Herrick received a $27,000 tax right off and Mackey got a great curlew decoy out of deal.  This Curlew later sold after his death for $10,500.  This all based on Mackey's appraisal for the Herrick donation.


See Hunting & Fishing Collectables Magazine May-June 2006 where you find the first of Ronnie McGrath's rebuttals of my research masquerading as articles. This response is to my original Decoy Magazine articles on Charles Bunn and his decoys in the November/December 2003 and  January/February 2004 issues of Decoy Magazine.  Ronnie's rebuttal points out that that the Federal Government "contested the Bill Mackeys appraisal" of $27,000 for a charitable contribution of folk art. That charitable contribution was a $27,000 tax write off for Newbold Herrick. In 2016 dollars that would be around a $200,000 write-off.  Mackey's figure of $27,000 was alot of money for old decoys at that time, however, the Mackey appraisal won out over the government's appraiser.  I think an interesting side note is that the Yellowlegs, lot 453, in the G&D April 2016 auction sold for $27,500 almost mirroring Mackey's 1966 appraisal for the 17 Bunn shorebirds donated to the Museums at Stony Brook.


The two so-called biographies selected for the April 2016 auction used by G&D for information and proof for William Bowman decoy maker is ridiculous, stilted and once again very unprofessional.  G&D also stacked the deck in favor of Bowman with two disproven and out of date research sources.


G&D  first cites, The Great Book of Decoys (1990) edited by Joe Engers, Chapter 8: Long Island Decoys by Frank Dombo.  This is an out of date book written over 12 years before my discovery of Charles Bunn.  I have wondered if this was a slap at Joe Engers for his acknowledgment that Bunn is the real maker. If you do go to the first reference sited by G&D for William Bowman, on page 98, this is what you find:


"Shorebirds are certainly the most important category of Long Island decoys.  They go from the very realistic of William Bowman's curlew, dowitcher,and golden plover."


That's it.  Only a statement that has been disproven. On page 99, is a full page photo of a Charles Bunn curlew with this description, "Curlew by William Bowman of Lawrence. A truly fine example  of a shorebird decoy."  Again no proof or evidence is presented for a William Bowman as the maker of the Bunn decoys.


This citation has been discredited by the very editor of the book Joe Engers when he wrote this statement in reaction to all the new research that proved Bunn to be the real maker, Decoy Magazine November/December 2015, pages 18, 19 and 21, "As far as Decoy Magazine is concerned Charles Sumner Bunn is undoubtedly the carver of these exceptional Long Island decoys".


The second citation used is By G&D is The Decoys of Long Island, a catalog printed in 2010 by The Long Island Decoy Collectors Association.  The only thing of value the catalog has to offer are the writings of Geoffrey K. Fleming, the former director of the Southold Museum on Long Island's North Fork.  Some members of the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association led by Timmy Sieger and Ronnie McGrath are dedicated to the perpetuation of the William Bowman myth.  This group of decoy collectors are supposed to be dedicated to the research and history of Long Island decoys. However, they actually took a vote not to even discuss Bunn V. Bowman. They ignore all the research that has been presented for Bunn.


There is no mention of Bunn in the catalog, nine years after the research for Bunn was presented as the real maker.  And it is no surprise that in the "Biographies" section of this catalog on page76, we find "William Bowman" who's birth and death dates are strangely listed as dates unknown.  It is just the same rehash of Mackey and the Herricks disproven nonsense, which ends with this sentence, "William Bowman is well known for being Long Island's most famous and sought after carver."  By their taking this absurd stance for Bowman over Bunn, they display a total disregard for real research, as well as American and Long Island history.


So why would G&D Auctions use disproven and out of date references for their cataloging of   Lot 453 and other Bunn decoys they have presented that they call Bowman's?  And why didn't G&D cite the latest articles written for Decoy Magazine by Joe Jannsen and myself on the decoys made by Charles Bunn? G&D failed to explain why some people "believe" Bunn is the maker, which would be those articles not cited.  I can only assume this is the only way Guyette & Deeter can bolster their untenable support for the William Bowman myth.  How very unprofessional.  And the truly despicable thing about G&D stance for Bowman is they shamelessly and selfishly will not give credit to the real maker.
 



 





   
 
 

Turning Uncle Henry Bennett Folk Art into Chief Cuffee Decoys

Turning Uncle Henry Bennett folk art into "Chief" Cuffee Decoys for Fun and Profit


This is the story of how an unscrupulous Bridgehampton Long Island decoy collector /dealer turned a pair of William "Uncle Henry" Bennett decorative folk art shorebirds that were made in Springs, East Hampton, Long Island into a pair of Eugene "Chief" Cuffee shorebird decoys made in Southampton, Long Island on the Shinnecock Reservation, and sold by Abercrombie & Fitch Manhattan, NYC.



East Hampton decoy collector David Bennett began actively collecting Uncle Henry's work in the early part of the 21st century as he was completing his ground-breaking research proving Uncle Henry Bennett to be the maker of the folk art and decoys that had been called Chief Cuffee's for a little over 20 years.


Dave's family is one of the oldest Anglo families on Long Island. His ancestors first settled on Gardiner's Island with Lion Gardiner in 1639.  Early on, the Bennetts moved from Gardiner's Island to Long Island to the area called Springs on Accabonac Harbor in East Hampton.  Dave's deep roots in the area, coupled with the fact that he was an oil burner mechanic and fuel deliveryman for years, gave him access and opportunity to acquire decoys and information on local decoy makers and rigs from the East Hampton area.  Sometimes he was able to acquired entire rigs of retired decoys.  But there are also quite a few other collectors from the area also searching for decoys, so competition can be can be quite keen. 


In 2003, Dave got a tip that an East Hampton woman by the name of Nancy Reutershan had some decoys she wanted to sell, and among them he was told were some Uncle Bennett birds.  Dave went to see her but he was too late.  Mrs. Reutershan had already sold them a few months before in December of 2002 to our collector from Bridgehampton previously mentioned.  Dave had asked about the two Uncle Henry birds he had been told she had.  She did not remember his name but she told Dave the same thing she had told the Bridgehampton collector who she sold them to; that she, "Had bought them as a young bride in the early 1950's."  She also told him she bought them, "From an old Bonacker with one leg from Three Mile Harbor who had made them and sold them on the side of the road."  She told Dave the pair of birds had, "Golden Plover written under their tails in pencil." She also said that,"They had sat on her shelf for 50 years until she had sold them."


In the research Dave and I had been doing on Uncle Henry, it was critical to be able to tie birds that would be called "Cuffees" by dealers, auction houses and collectors at the time, to William "Uncle Henry" Bennett, eliminating Cuffee as their maker.  The two Reutershan birds did exactly that.  She did not recall his name, but there is no mistaking who she was referring to.  "Uncle Henry" was an old Bonacker.  He had only one leg.  He lived on Three Mile Harbor Road and he sold his birds by the side of that road.  So Dave thanked her for her information.


Then he contacted the Bridgehampton dealer she had sold them to.  Dave wanted to see if he could buy the two carvings from him, or at least photograph this pair that were documented as definitely the work of Uncle Henry, which was extremely important to our research.  When Dave contacted the buyer of the two Uncle Henry's, he told Dave that he had already sold the pair to a Cuffee collector from Watermill, Long Island.


What would a Cuffee collector want with a pair of carvings that were made by a "Bonacker" from  Springs, where he lived and "sold his carvings"?  Because the unscrupulous Bridgehampton dealer/collector had left those and other facts out about Mrs.Reutershan's two golden plovers.  The pair of plovers had been sold to a gullible "Cuffee" collector as "Chief Cuffee golden plovers"  that were bought by a woman who had purchased them from Abercrombie & Fitch in Manhattan.  The only truth in this string of lies was that they were bought by a woman.


The collector from Watermill was informed that the birds weren't "Cuffees" and how he had been taken for a ride by his Buddy from Bridgehampton.  He also was informed of the real history of the carvings and he was given Mrs. Reutershan's phone number and address to confirm what what he was being told was accurate.  But our William Henry Bennett collector, who considered himself a Cuffee collector, did not contact Mrs. Reutershan.  He didn't want to hear the truth.  He was sticking with the guy who screwed him because that guy had told him that the birds were Cuffee's, and that's what he wanted to hear.


Later Dave Bennett was able to get a photo of the pair of birds and when shown the photo, Mrs.Reutershan identified them instantly as the pair of birds that had sat on her shelf, and the birds she had dusted for 50 years before selling them.


So the real history of these two pieces of American folk art was changed without thought or care for the true history.  Some might say, well everyone called them Cuffee's at the time, so why believe this old lady who had actually bought them from their maker?  After all, she was no decoy expert like our Bridgehampton decoy collector/dealer expert.  But that does not explain the lie about A&F.  The fact that he had told his pigeon from Watermill that they had come out of Abercrombie & Fitch is a lie and a deliberate distortion of decoy history to guild the lily and put money in his unscrupulous pocket.  But why did he say that they had come from A&F?


Other than the obvious prestige of having been purchased out of the old tweedy "Gun Room" at the equally prestigious address of their old headquarters at Madison and 45th Street in Manhattan, NY.  There was a rumor or story, most likely started by Bob Gerard, that Cuffee's work had been sold by A&F.  Where the A&F story came from can only be conjecture.  It most likely happened when Bob Gerard interviewed Charles Bunn's daughter, Mrs. Martinez.  In Gerard's chapter in Dr.Stone's book, he mentions some of the wealthy sports who were Bunn's clients.  David Abercrombie founder of A&F is not mentioned.  But Gerard does write of Bunn's trip to Canada on a moose hunt.  On this trip Charles Bunn, accompanied David Abercrombie and Newbold Leroy Edgars.  Mrs.Martinez would not have mentioned the trip without the inclusion of her father's good friend David Abercrombie.


This A&F story interestingly was once backed up by decoy collector/dealer Joe Tonelli.  Joe at one time claimed to have an A& F catalog featuring "Chief Cuffee decoys" in it.  When he was pressed to make a copy of it and send it to me or Joe Jannsen, it was much like Ronnie McGrafth's non-existent " missing Bill Bowman photo."  Joe T. couldn't find it and it could not possibly have existed prior to Bob Gerard's Chief Cuffee fabrication around 1980 because they were not called Cuffees until then, and Abercrombie & Fitch closed in 1977 before anyone called the birds Cuffee's!


So now you have the facts surrounding how an unscrupulous Bridgehampton decoy collector /dealer distorted decoy and folk art history.  He lied to his fellow Long Island Decoy Collector Association member and supposed friend about the true maker of the two carvings he had bought from Mrs. Reutershan, and purposely changing decoy history for his self enrichment.  You also have learned of the stupidity of the so-called "Cuffee" collector from Watermill who is so invested in being a "Cuffee" collector, that he refused to contact the seller of the carvings to get the real story on the real maker.  And even after being told his pal from Bridgehampton had lied to him about the true maker of the birds, he was still his buddy.  That is a rare form of stupidly.


So now you have the truth about how two Uncle Henry Bennett folk art carvings became two "Chief Cuffee decoys".