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  Theses out of date references are used by Decoys Unlimited to write their catalog descriptions, but occasionally Ted really gets creative all on his own.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.