THE WARD BROTHERS
1896-1984 AND 1895-1976 | CRISFIELD, MD
295 Humpback Pintail Drake
The Ward Brothers Lemuel T. (1896-1984) and Stephen (1895-1976) Crisfield, MD, c. 1925 17 1/2 in. long
The Ward brothers were among the very few carvers who derived commercial success from both hunters and collectors during their lifetimes. In the 1920s, they quickly found local notoriety with carvings such as this pintail. By the 1930s, they were shipping birds to Chicago and California. “The famous decoy contest in 1948,” writes Quintina Colio on the heritage of decoys, “was held in the Grand Central Palace, New York City, sponsored by Schaefer Brewing Company and the winner was the Ward Brothers, from Crisfield, Maryland. Renowned judges included Wm J. Mackey, Jr., Lynn Bogue Hunt and Dr. Edgar Burke.” At the Mackey auctions in the 1970s, a related humpback drake was cataloged as “one of the top birds in the Mackey Collection,” and bidders agreed. The Ward humpback pintail has been coveted by collectors for decades with the few remaining examples seen in the nation’s top museums, collections, and publications. Ward authorities Gard and McGrath note that “the pintail was Lem’s favorite bird...” This partiality was supported by their early experiences with the species. In Colio’s American Decoys, Southern historian, collector, and friend of the Wards William H. Purnell Jr. recounted that in their early days “the Wards were avid duck hunters, gunning the Cedar Island Marsh in Somerset County, Maryland. Steve recalls that they would pole out to their duck blind, shoot all day then they would pole back…a journey of four miles. He said that when he and Lem would approach the sand bar the pintails and the baldpates would jump up and would resemble a cloud of smoke…they enjoyed some of the best shooting on the Chesapeake Bay.” With these experiences, it is not a surprise that many of the brothers’ best early carvings were of pintails and wigeon. A nearly identical rigmate to this lot was chosen as not only the lead image for an impressive chapter on this species in Gard and McGrath’s book, but also the sole
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feature of the back dust jacket. Discussing this rigmate from the Gard collection, the authors write, “This decoy is the epitome of the Wards’ Hump Back design, with the head set back and almost touching the back of the bird. The body is rotund but elongated, with a magnificent accent of an exaggerated upward sweeping tail...This decoy is extremely desirable.” The carving’s underside bears an inked inscription “1934 L. T. Ward - Bros.” The paint and form more accurately date it to the mid-to-late 1920s. The underside retains three links of chain used for ballast. Original paint with gunning wear, working repaint to white on front and back and the brown on head. Old worn chip to top of tail, neck seam separation, missing right eye, age line in neck, breast, and bottom. PROVENANCE: William K. du Pont Collection LITERATURE: Ronald J. Gard and Brian J. McGrath, The Ward Brothers’ Decoys: A Collector’s Guide, Plano, TX, 1989, pp. 57, 61, pl. 51 and back dust-jacket cover, rigmate illustrated and discussed. Loy S. Harrell Jr., Decoys: North America’s One Hundred Greatest, Iola, WI, 2000, p. 9, related drake illustrated. Quintina Colio, American Decoys, Ephrata, PA, 1972, p. 2, related decoy illustrated. Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., Very Rare and Important American Bird Decoys from the Collection of the late William J. Mackey Jr. of Belford, New Jersey, Hyannis, MA, 1974, Sessions V & VI, lot 583, rigmate illustrated. Adele Earnest, Folk Art in America, Exton, PA, 1984, p. 127, related decoy illustrated. Jeff Waingrow, American Wildfowl Decoys, New York, NY, 1985, frontispiece and p. 29, related decoy from American Folk Museum illustrated.
$12,000 - $18,000