CRISFIELD, ORIGINAL CONDITION!! "Signed & DATED" 1972 FRED BRADSHAW "Gunning Bird Style"; Ward Brothers Style, 1942 STYLE "HEN BLUEBILL"; Wood Duck Decoy; CRISFIELD, MARYLAND - AWESOME TEXTURED 100% ORIGINAL PAINT!!!
- OUTSTANDING PATINA TO THE 43-YEAR OLD OIL PAINT!!
- EXCELLENT "DEEP YELLOW", TAXIDERMIST'S IMPORTED, GLASS EYES!!
- AWESOME STYLE of the 1942 "Bluebill Gunning Birds" by the WARD BROTHERS!!!
- BEAUTIFUL, WARD BROTHERS GUNNING STYLE, FEATHERED PAINT DETAIL with AWESOME PAINT BLENDING!!
- AWESOME WARD BROTHERS GUNNING DECOY FORM with SLIGHTLY TURNED & COCKED HEAD with VERY REALISTIC HEAD AND TAIL CARVING!! (The Bill Looks Real and Eyes were Carved In and Located with Perfection!!)
SIGNED ON THE BOTTOM: "MADE By FRED BRADSHAW"; "1972"; "CRISFIELD, MARYLAND"
STYLED AFTER THE WARD BROTHERS 1942 STYLE BUT ALSO RESEMBLES OTHER YEARS AS WELL!!!!
SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE
This Superb, Solid Cedar, "1942 Ward Brothers" Gunning Bird Styled, Hen Bluebill Wood Duck Decoy was wonderfully carved and painted by Arthur Fred Bradshaw of Crisfield, Maryland. Crisfield is a city in Somerset County and it is located on the Tangier Sound, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Crisfield is included in the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metro Area and Crisfield has the distinction of not only being the southernmost incorporated city in Maryland, but also as the home of probably the most famous decoy carving pair of brothers, Lem and Steve Ward. The site of today's Crisfield was initially a small fishing village called Annemessex Neck. During European colonization, it was renamed Somers Cove, after Benjamin Summers. When the business potential for seafood was discovered, the town's namesake, John W. Crisfield, decided to bring the Pennsylvania Railroad to Crisfield, and the quiet fishing town grew. Crisfield is now known as the "Seafood Capital of the World". The city's success was so great that the train soot and oyster shells prompted the extension of the city's land into the marshes. City residents often claim that the downtown area is literally built atop oyster shells.
Crisfield is also located on the Delmarva Peninsula, which is bordered on the west by Chesapeake Bay and the east by the Atlantic Ocean. All in all, the city of Crisfield is surrounded by salt marshes and was built on a floodplain. But more importantly, this part of Maryland along with the Eastern Shore of Virginia that it butts up to on its south, is 800 square miles of some of the most fertile tidewater country anywhere and hosts a plethora of expansive marshes, bays, creeks, ponds, inlets and tidal backwaters of waterfowl country that has played host for centuries to migrating and nesting wildfowl. Given this backdrop, the watermen that lived here plied the waters for not only its waterfowl bonanza, but also were proficient clammers, oystermen, crabbers, fishermen and of course in the mid to late 1800's and until 1918 they were market hunters for ducks, geese, swans and shorebirds.
While Crisfield was home to the Ward Brothers, a mere 25 miles due east of Crisfield you will find Chincoteague, Virginia. Chincoteague is a town located on Chincoteague Island which is 7 miles long and just off the southeastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula, which is also bordered on the west by Chesapeake Bay and the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Chincoteague Island is one of several barrier Islands and the Eastern Shore school of carvers includes one of the densest groups of carvers within the population base that they are included. It includes the likes of Chincoteague, Virginia carvers: Charles Jester (1876-1952), Doug Jester (1876-1961), Dave "Umbrella" Watson (1851-1938), Miles Hancock (1888-1974), Delbert "Cigar" Daisy (b. 1924), Ira Hudson (1876-1949) and Charles Birch (1867-1956) of Willis' Wharf, Virginia among others. Given the proximity of these carvers to each other and the overlap of their hunting grounds, most knew each other and thus the profound influence that reciprocated between them of styles and construction techniques.
Just as Chincoteague claims its famous carvers, in addition to the Ward Brothers, many other excellent carvers have called Crisfield home, and one of those men was the man that made this very scarce and wonderfully carved and painted Hen Scaup up for sale, Mr. Fred Bradshaw (1928-2004). Fred is not the first member of the Bradshaw family that plied the waters of the Chesapeake Bay however, as he is just one of 11 children that were born to this family and dates back to the earlier 1800's. Hezekiah Bradshaw, Fred's father, also went by "HK" or "Captain Kia", and he was born in Somerset County in 1882, while his wife Florence was born there in 1889. In addition to their son Fred (birth-name Arther Fred Bradshaw), the family further helped populate Crisfield, as Fred had 4 older brothers, 1 younger brother, and 5 sisters.
While the decoys of the Eastern Shore carvers were of outstanding quality and were truly carved and conceived as "working" decoys that were effective at drawing in birds, the Crisfield decoys of the Ward's and others were all that, but with an artistic flair to form and paint that gave them a realistic appearance up with the best carvers anywhere.
The Crisfield decoys were given realistic carving detail and life-like paint, but were also meant to be banged around to a degree in a boat and used day after day and season after season without a great deal of upkeep except maybe some periodical paint tune-ups before a new season.
1942 BLUEBILL HEN BY THE WARD BROTHERS; SIGNED: "Ward Bros. Crisfield, Md., Lem Ward, Steve Ward – 1942". EXACTLY LIKE THIS HEN UP FOR sale;
- THIS HEN'S HEAD is TURNED SHARPLY to the LEFT and SLIGHTLY COCKED UPWARD.
(ABOVE PHOTO) 1942 WARD BROTHERS STYLE BLUEBILL HEN BY FRED BRADSHAW; SIGNED: "FRED BRADSHAW, CRISFIELD, MARYLAND, 1972".
- EXACTLY LIKE THE 1942 WARD BROTHERS HEN BLUEBILL PICTURED ABOVE; THIS HEN'S HEAD is TURNED SHARPLY to the LEFT and SLIGHTLY COCKED UPWARD.
This Awesome and Rare Fred Bradshaw Hen Bluebill up for sale captures the form of the 1942 era bluebills carved by the Ward Brothers and it is also from the hometown of Crisfield, Maryland that they all share. This Bluebill has outstanding original textured surface, oil-based artist paint and this decoy has outstanding symmetry from both carving and painting standpoints. This Bluebill was carved from an awesome piece of cedar stock and the form of this decoy is beautifully contoured and free-flowing which give it a smooth, very realistic appearance. the beautifully blended, Ward Brothers-style paint looks perfect with its feather stippled back paint, softly semi-swirled side paint and wing paint that beautifully recreates the speculums and wing tips. The paint on this decoy is incredible and it was applied very thick which allowed him to use the brush to give these decoys an awesome feathering affect with feather directional detail. This decoy most precisely follows the form of the 1942 Bluebill styled Ward decoys as the beautifully and very realistically carved head and bill turns slightly to its left with a slight cock to it that gives it almost a "Frank Coombs", Uplooking attitude. Even the paint detail to the bill and white face patch have excellent detail and the paint on the body was blended flawlessly from color to color and color hue to color hue. It is just an awesome paint job and beautiful surface and texture to it. The swimming decoy was carved with great lines that start by flowing smoothly and flawlessly from the semi-alert head and neck that is slightly turned. From there it contours perfectly from the neck and into the body and then gracefully transitions in a seamless manner all the way to the Ward-styled, aimed down and carved out from the bottom tail. This Rare Decoy is in MINT, PRISTINE IMMACULATE 100% ORIGINAL CONDITION. This decoy undoubtedly has spent its entire existence well protected in a climate-controlled collection and it shows wonderfully as a collection focal point. This decoy is perfectly symmetrically carved and they have very nicely carved in features. The bill is extraordinarily and accurately carved and it has wonderfully carved in and painted head/bill separation, nostrils, upper and lower mandibles, nail on the end and even the soft-looking underside of the bill was finely carved in and detailed. Much in the traditional of many of the Crisfield carvers, it has perfectly carved in yellow taxidermist eyes and overall it is just a perfectly executed gunning decoy from both carving and painting standpoints. The Very Awesome and rare decoy measures 15-1/2" long x 6-3/8" wide x 6" tall and weighs 2-lbs. 3-ozs. This awesome decoy would make a great addition to any decoy collection, especially one that features awesome birds from the Atlantic Flyway. Actually, this will make a great addition to any collection that has duck, goose and shorebird decoys from Maryland and Virginia. If you have any questions or would like any additional photos feel free to email me. Thanks for looking.
