VINTAGE CHRIS SMITH REDHEAD HEN DUCK DECOY ORIGINAL PAINT EXCELLENT ALGONAC MICH

Description

VINTAGE CHRIS SMITH REDHEAD HEN DUCK DECOY ORIGINAL PAINT EXCELLENT CONDITION,ALGONAC MICH. Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.
H
ere
is a chance to pick up an original paint Chris Smith redhead and a hen to boot.
Weighs 1 lb 11.6 oz which includes the weight and is 14.5 inches long.
Glass eyes, hollow body with bottom board and strong original paint with a few shot marks. Has very small and I mean very small nick/roughness to left edge tip of bill. Please refer to pics as they are the condition report.
Chris Smith, founder of the Chris Craft Boat company in Algonac, Michigan, ca. 1890s.
I’m thinning out some of my collection to make room for Illinois River decoys.
Thanks for looking , good luck bidding and be sure to check out my other listed birds or ask about others I may be parting with
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Christopher Smith
(1858 - 1937) Algonac, HI
Chris Smith was known for his boat building long before he was recognized as a carver of decoys. Chris and his older brother Henry were both market hunters as young men and made their own decoys and boats out of necessity. The popular Chris¬Craft and Miss America boats that triumphed in the Gold Cup Races held on the Detroit River are products of the company that bear Chris Smith’s name (Kangas, Survey 178).
For their lures, Chris and Henry got wood from ships passing Algonac; the ships’ captains would piCk out usable logs and throw them overboard for the brothers. As hunters, the Smiths understood the need for light decoys that could be packed in large quantities in a tiny boat. They carved small decoys with hollow bodies. The decoys have long slender necks and chests that are narrow in comparison to the rest of the bodily proportions. The decoys display a variety of positions that portray both content and alert attitudes. Neither brother adorned his decoys with surface carving on the body or detailed carving on the bills with the exception of canvasbacks. Between the two of them, the brothers produced as many as a thousand decoys. Some of these decoys have a lead keel with “C.C. Smith” stamped on them to clearly identify decoys by Chris. For the great amount of decoys the men produced, they limited themselves to black ducks, scaup, canvasbacks, pintails, redheads and whistlers, the primary species hunted in the area.