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RARE, OUTSTANDING 100% ORIG PAINT C1930 OTTO MISCH  \
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RARE, OUTSTANDING 100% ORIG PAINT C1930 OTTO MISCH \"BLACK DUCK\" Wood Decoy MICH
Price: US $430.00
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RARE, OUTSTANDING 100% ORIG PAINT C1930 OTTO MISCH \"BLACK DUCK\" Wood Decoy MICH a.imagelink {color:#000000;} a:hover.imagelink {color:#000000;} a:visited.imagelink {color:#00A8A8;} a.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #000000; } a:visited.imagelink img.saleimage { border: 2px solid #00A8A8; }

OUTSTANDING CONDITION!! A VERY RARE -and- VERY EARLY BLOCK!!!  c1930 OTTO F. MISCH (1886-1978);  Black Duck;  \"Solid Cedar\" WOOD DUCK DECOY;  

  • Saginaw Bay, Michigan (Village of Weale; North of Sebewaing/Middle Grounds)

SEE THE BLACK DUCK DECOY FEATURED IN:  The Late William \"Bill\" Stout\'s 2007 Book:  \"SAGINAW BAY WATERFOWL HUNTING AND DECOY CARVERS\"  on PAGE 110.

  • THIS is AS GOOD a DRAKE BLACK DUCK DECOY of OTTO MISCH\'S AS YOU WILL EVER SEE!!
  • PLUS, THIS IS A VERY RARE, SOLID-BODIED, SHORT-BLOCK, HUNTING DECOYS!!

NICE BIG, \"SOLID\" CEDAR, 16\" SHORT-BODY, WORKING DUCK DECOY!!

INCREDIBLE FEATHER DETAIL Including AWESOMELY FINE DETAILED SPECULUMS, BILL PAINT with CREAM & BEIGE HIGHLIGHTS to the CHOCOLATE HEAD!!!

This Decoy Has The MOST AWESOME SCRATCH PAINT FEATHER PAINT to ANY MISCH DECOY I HAVE EVER SEEN!!

  • One Of The Most Popular & Sought After Gunning Decoys Hunted on Saginaw Bay!!
  • Outstanding, Very Thick, 100% Original Lead-Based Paint with a Waterproof, Grayish, Marine Enamel, Bottom Paint for Extra Protection!!

The Crazed and Caramelized Old Original Lead-Based Oil Paint has Awesome Patina!!  THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE On This Decoy is the INCREDIBLE PATINA!!!

  • I EMPHATICALLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO USE THE ZOOM FEATURE ON THE PICTURES IN THIS LISTING TO SEE HOW AWESOME & INCREDIBLE THE FEATHER COMBED, SCRATCH PAINT ON THIS BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED DECOY REALLY IS!!
  • All Original Paint and Shadows Where the Trademark Misch Lead Weight and Thick Leather Line-Tie Were Located

SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE

This 84 Year Old decoy is a nicely formed, very unique \"BLACK DUCK\" Wood Duck Decoy was hand carved and painted by Otto F. Misch (1886-1979) originally of Port Huron, MI and later at an area known as the Village of Weale located on Saginaw Bay.  If you are not familiar with Saginaw Bay, it is the 30 mile wide x 60 mile long body of water a few hours north of Detroit that forms the indentation into Michigan\'s mitten from Lake Huron (Thus nick-named the \"Thumb Area\").  One of the earliest and most noted carvers of the area was Bill Finch (1863-1930), but before he passed on he mentored 3 legendary carvers that would carry on his tradition and style; Hayes Finkle (1876-1953), Frank Brogan (1882-1964) and of course the youngest, Otto Misch.

MISCH AT HIS SAGINAW BAY HOMESTEAD c1940

Charley Misch (b. 1851) and his wife Carleana (b. 1842) were born in Saxony, Germany and immigrated to the United States where they eventually located in Port Huron, Michigan where Lake Huron funnels into and becomes the St. Clair River.  They would have two children, Otto was born on December 9, 1886 and his younger sister Elza was born in 1892.  As a boy, Otto would take the 5 cent ferry across the river to Sarnia, Ontario and was known to play with the Native American and Native Canadian children on both sides of the river and had become acquainted with their hand-made boats during this time.  On occasion, Otto would reflect that these early impressions of their craft influenced to a degree the boats he would make as an adult.  He often said, \"Their boats weren\'t like our boats.  Theirs were all round bottomed, lighter and easier to propel, that moved over the water- not through it like our square bottomed, heavier boats did\".   Otto would go to school until the 8th grade.  In 1920 Otto Misch married Meta E. Sass (b. 1890), a German immigrant born in Saxony, and who only spoke German upon her arrival.  Around 1910 and until the mid-1920\'s, Otto worked as a carpenter mainly on houses and somewhere in the mid-1020\'s and into the 1930\'s Otto worked for Detroit Edison Gas & Light.  Around this time and until his retirement in 1945 Misch wood work as a shipbuilders  carpenter for both Gar Woods in Marysville and Chris Craft in Algonac, both further downstream from Port Huron and close to Lake St. Clair.  Otto and his wife Meta adopted their only child Elsie that was born in 1913 and her parents were listed as unknown for many years.

MISCH\'S SAGINAW BAY, MICHIGAN HOME, WORKSHOP, ETC. HE BOUGHT c1925

In the very early 1900\'s, while he was still living in Port Huron, Otto Misch became close friends and a hunting companion of Bill Finch, Hayes Finkle and Frank Brogan.  They initially hunted the St. Clair River region and lake St. Clair and eventually began making trips to Saginaw Bay some 70 miles NNW of Port Huron.  Misch began making around this time while in Port Huron and he used them not only near his home town and Lake St. Clair but they were the decoys he gunned over on his Saginaw Bay junkets.  Although Misch was most always employed from 1910 until 1945, he always found time to fit in his true loves which were hunting, fishing, decoy carving and boat building.   Misch became so enchanted with the bounties of Saginaw Bay that around 1925 he purchased a small parcel of land on the southeastern shores of Saginaw Bay between Sebewaing and Bayport.  He eventually built a rather modest sized cottage and several outbuildings on the property which would be his base of operations in the area while he continued keep his main residence in Port Huron at 1434 Baird Street that he and his wife shared with his mother-in-law Adeline Sass (b. 1870 in Germany).

LOCATION OF MISCH\'S SAGINAW BAY HUNTING COTTAGE IN PROXIMITY TO HIS FELLOW CARVING & HUNTING LEGEND FRIENDS BILL FINCH, FRANK BROGAN, HAYES FINKLE, ETC.

In 1945 at the age of 58, Otto Misch officially retired and moved his family full-time to his Weale home and earnestly began making duck decoys and duck boats to supplement his retirement income.   After hunters witnessed just how effective Misch\'s decoys performed,  they gained in popularity through word of mouth and during this time he charged as much as $3.00 to $4.00 for his best decoys and as high as $6.00.  This was an exorbitant amount at that time, but his decoys were certainly better than anything else available and this Canvasback up for sale is an excellent example of his finest work.  Misch was known to have made canvasbacks, redheads, mallards, black ducks and a limited number of bluebills, buffleheads, goldeneyes, pintails, teal, wigeon, ringed-neck and a few Canada Geese.  Misch was an ardent observer of the various species and tried to translate this knowledge into his decoys.  Misch carved with, and to varying degrees was influenced by, Bill Finch, Frank Brogan and Hayes Finkle.

 

VINTAGE PHOTO OF MISCH\'S DECOY SHED CONTAINING A MIX OF HIS DECOYS, OTHER SAGINAW CARVERS BIRDS, DETROIT & ST. CLAIR FLATS DECOYS, EARLY CARRY-LITE, ETC.

Misch made his own decoy patterns and he made his decoys from stock that he split from various posts and poles.  He traced his patterns on to the blocks of wood that were roughed into shape with a band-saw.  He then used draw-knives, rasps and files to work them into their final shape and form.  Misch\'s output of decoys was almost entirely \"hollow-bodied\" birds and he used a spur bit to excavate them and he typically finished them off by nailing on a 1/2\" or 5/8\" bottom board with a couple dozen nails and a marine, lead-based caulk/adhesive.  His heads were attached by using a large screw and a marine adhesive/caulk from the hollowed-out decoy body.  THIS DECOY UP FOR sale IS ONE OF OTTO MISCH\'S VERY RARE SOLID-BODIED DECOYS MEANT TO TAKE WHATEVER NASTY WATERS SAGINAW BAY CAN COOK UP WITHOUT WARNING!!  A testament to the quality of the construction of his decoys is you don\'t see them with loose heads and necks or with separation to the bottom board.  Several somewhat unique traits characterize the typical Otto Misch duck decoy from his earlier period:  1.) A \"V\" shaped crest on the back of the head that starts on the back of the crown and splits to a \"Y\" before it hits the base of the neck.   2.) A very unique 6-1/2\" long x 1\" deep, cast lead, keel weight with two crosshatched stabilizers 1-1/2\" from each end (see photo).  3.) A somewhat bulbous bill with deeply incised head/bill separation and nostrils and a blunt end.  4.) A very thick leather line tie  5.) Glass Eyes  and 6.) A tall, bulky and wide body with a flat back and a thick, hard to break tail.  This canvasback decoy up for sale encompasses every one of these features to a tee.  Misch\'s unique keels are very unique to his decoys other than those that can be found on many of the decoys carved by his younger carving and hunting companion Frank Burghy (b. 1939).  But when it comes to this decoy up for sale, it is very,very rare as it does not have the typical \"Misch\" crest on the back of the head and it is solid-bodied.  A very unique thing about this rare decoy is that Otto Misch used a pair of brown glass eyes that were either bought from the Mason decoy Company of Detroit, or a re-purposed a pair from a Mason Premier Duck Decoy, as these eyes look EXACTLY like the eyes used on their Mason Premier line of decoys.  

MISCH\'S TRADEMARK LEAD CAST, KEEL/WEIGHT. AS YOU CAN SEE ON THE BOTTOM PHOTO, THIS IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF BALLAST THAT ADORNED THIS DECOY BEFORE IT WAS REMOVED WHEN IT ENTERED INTO THE COLLECTION IT CAME FROM!!

To finish his decoys Otto Misch insisted on mixing his own paints and his paint jobs were very representative of each species but certainly not overly detailed; he carved them as hunting blocks and intended them to be hunted over and not displayed on a shelf.  This Black Duck decoy up for sale quite possibly saw some hunting action but based on the minor rubbing to the high spots, but I wouldn\'t be surprised if it was never gunned over.  One of Misch\'s rigs did earn a degree of notoriety as it was hunted over in the late 1940\'s by President Dwight David Eisenhower.  The rig was owned by A. J. Rheaume, who was in real estate in Detroit and in Michigan\'s Thumb area and it consisted of canvasbacks, redheads and bluebills.

BLACK DUCK FEATURED in BILL STOUT\'S BOOK:  \"SAGINAW BAY DECOY CARVERS\" on Page 110.

Check Out The PICTURE BELOW!!!!

PHOTO of This BLACK DUCK Up For sale!!  LOOK AT THE AWESOME PAINT DETAIL, SCRATCH PAINTING -and- OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD PATINA!!!   (Please You The Zoom Feature on This Superb Decoy)

Other than carving some of the finest decoys to ever ride the waters of Saginaw Bay, no conversation would be complete without including the outstanding duck boats made by the hands of Otto Misch.  Misch made sneak boats as well as punt boats, they took him up to 3 months from start to finish and during his hey-day they sold in the $400 to $500 range.  His duck boats were considered to be the finest made in the entire Thumb area of Michigan and a great indicator of the quality is that a good number of them are still in use today.  As a carry over from his days as a youngster in Port Huron, his boats were all fashioned after the boats made by the Native Americans with their rounded bottoms.  Like other makers, his boats were made with cedar strips or slats that were nailed and laminated together around a mold and he used ash for the ribs.  Although he made punt boats while still in Port Huron and before he retired, his production of sneak boats did not begin until after he retired and relocated to Saginaw Bay.  His punt boats ranged in size from 12-ft. to 14-ft. and his sneak boats averaged in the 16-ft. range.  The sneak boats being used at the same time down south in the Lake St. Clair region tended to be longer and on occasion as long as 21-ft. but the boats from both areas were almost identical in design. 

Otto Misch and the other Saginaw Bay master carvers and duck hunters still had a somewhat close relationship to their waterfowling counterparts not far to the south.  Hayes Finkle\'s brother Bill lived on Harsen\'s Island, Michigan about an hour to the south on Lake St. Clair.  Harsen\'s Island is also 20 minutes south of Port Huron, where Otto Misch lived most of his life and where he met Hayes Finkle, Frank Brogan and Bill Finch.  Bill Finkle was known to occasionally visit and gun with his brother Hayes and the guys up in Saginaw and some of his decoys were found there including some in Misch\'s decoy shed.  Close friend and protege of Ben Schmidt, Walter Snow, also was known to visit the Weale Hunting Camps and hunt primarily out of Frank Burghy\'s Weale cottage.  To the south of them and in or very close to the City of Detroit is where a different school of carving which was gaining attention with the \"dean\" being Ben Schmidt.  Schmidt and Misch became friends as well as duck hunting partners on occasion with each show-casing great hunting spots in their own areas.  In addition to many Mason Factory decoys and Walter Snow decoys being gunned over on Saginaw Bay and by Village of Weale gunners, quite a few of Ben Schmidt\'s gems made their way up to the big bay and in many cases were used as models by a next generation of Saginaw Bay carvers.  Otto Misch continued to hunt until he was 85 years old, at which point he concluded it was just too much of an effort.  Otto Misch lived the rest of his life at his Weale home and passed away at the age of 91 on June 6, 1978.

This Outstanding Otto Misch Drake Black Duck decoy up for sale exemplifies some of his finest and Very Best work and may have been gunned over, but I highly doubt it.  It is an excellent example of a large and very visible decoy that was so well hollowed out that it was a very sought after hunting decoy.  Misch\'s decoys were also so well made that they could take a tremendous beating and not only stay in superb condition but were considered relatively unbreakable.  Although all of Misch\'s decoys did not have the fanciest paint jobs ever put on a decoy, they were exemplary at decoying wary birds and the paint was applied in a utilitarian manner.  But this Black Duck Not Only Has A Fancy Paint Job, The Patina That Covers This Decoy is INCREDIBLE!!!  Not only did he mix his own oil-based paints, but he used all quality ingredients and applied the paint perfectly uniformly and thick enough to last for as long as the decoy itself.  Misch hand made his paint and the patina on this decoy is so awesome because the paint aged perfectly and now has a burnished glow that only highlights the awesome crazing and caramelizing that the paint became after almost 100 Years!!  This decoy is in structurally mint condition and there is a small spot on the front of the breast where the original lead putty has checked with age, but if you ask me I think this adds to the patina and aura of this beautiful, rare and perfectly proportioned wood gunning blocks.  This decoy up for sale exhibits \"every\" trait that would identify a decoy as being one of his and it was carved and painted with outstanding symmetry.  The glass eyes were flawlessly carved in, mounted and located, But one of the Coolest Things About this Decoy is that He Used brown, Mason Premier, Factory decoy eyes.  I presume that either he bought the eyes directly from Mason, or that he re-purposed a set of eyes from a retired Mason decoy he had on hand.  His trademarked lead cast keel weight and leather line tie have long since been removed,  but the faint shadow on the bottom shows where they originally called home.  Even the bottom on this decoy is perfectly intact and excellent in appearance.  This is just an astounding Otto Misch decoy and a great example of what a vintage example of what one of his Saginaw Bay decoys looked like.   

This classic Otto Misch wood decoy has wonderful form and great paint and it measures 16\" long x 6-3/4\" wide x 8-1/8\" tall and weighs a very white-cap negotiating 3-lb. 9-oz., and since the weight has been removed, it is all solid-cedar decoy.  Those dimensions and weight make for a stately and very high profile Saginaw Bay decoy. This would be a great addition of a classic and vintage decoy from the Saginaw Bay region that was made by one of the true \"pioneering carvers\" that hunted its fertile gunning grounds.   If you have any questions or would like any additional  photos please feel free to email me. Thank you for looking.

BELOW IS A SERIES OF PHOTOS OF OTTO MISCH\'S PRIZED DECOYS.  It Includes Puddle Ducks as well as




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