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VERY RARE ~SUPERB LATER FORM 1965 RALPH REGHI ~CANVASBACK Rigged Wood Duck Decoy For Sale

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VERY RARE ~SUPERB LATER FORM 1965 RALPH REGHI ~CANVASBACK Rigged Wood Duck Decoy

Price: US $224.00

RALPH E. REGHI (10/22/1910 - 4/21/1995) Detroit, Michigan

Below: c1963 Photo: Reghi\'s Decoys Were as Instrumental in Helping to Dictate the Style, Construction and Form of Lake St. Clair Decoys in the Early to Mid 20th-Century, as Any Other Carver Did!!
And Ralph\'s \"Laurie Rig\" is Right Up There with Lake St. Clair\'s Most Famous Gunning Rigs!!

AWESOME, FULLY RIGGED, VINTAGE \"Bull-Necked\" GUNNING BIRD; c1965 \"RALPH REGHI\" Drake Canvasback Wood Duck Decoy; Mt. Clemens School (St. Clair Flats, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River)

Superb & Thick 100% Original Paint!!
Great Old Hand-Made Inletted \"Lead\" Weighted Keel and Painted Red Tack Eyes!! (Carved for a West side Family Rig!!)

Carver and Mentor Jim Kelson Collaborated on Some of Metro Detroit\'s Most Unique and Pioneering Decoy Styles, Methods of Construction and the Materials Used!!

THIS DECOY IS AMONG THE LAST & MOST REFINED WORK IN REGHI\'S CARVING CAREER...HIS TRIED & TRUE, CONTINUOUSLY EVOLVING BALSA-BODIED, SNEAK-RIG BIRDS!!

Outstanding Bull-Neck, Paddle Tail and Triangulated, Flat-Bottomed Body!! (All Done with Incredible Symmetry Synonymous with Reghi\'s Attention to Detail and Uncompromising Quality!!!)
Outstanding Head & Bill with His Exacting Attention to Precision!! (Like His Finest Decoys, He Drilled Depth \"Guide Holes\" Where the Mandibles Meet the Head..When he Carved Down to these Points he Knew The Head Was Perfect and Symmetrical!!)

Reghi\'s Contemporaries Were Jim Kelson, Ralph Johnston, Ben Schmidt, Pecore Fox, John Schweikart and Tom Schroeder....Just to Name a Few!!
OUTSTANDING BILL THAT LOOKS LIKE IT WAS CAST FROM A REAL CANVASBACK\'S BILL!!!

OUTSTANDING \"SEALED WOOD SURFACE\" & IMPASTO FINISH TO ENTIRE BODY GIVING THE SURFACE A FEATHERED TEXTURE & APPEARANCE!!

EXCELLENT 50+ YEAR OLD DECOY THAT IS EASILY ONE OF THE MORE OUTSTANDING BIRDS FROM THE POST-WORLD WAR II ERA in DETROIT, LAKE ST. CLAIR, THE DETROIT RIVER & SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN!!

Bull-Neck Style, Medium Height Neck & Head!!!
\"Sun Ray\" Fluted-Carved Tail!!
Exceptional Wing Carving detail Giving the Entire Wings definition from the Shoulders all of the Way Back to the Wing Tips!!!!
Wing Separation in the Back Also Made these Very East to Handle and Acted as an \"ICE GROOVE\"!!

RALPH REGHI\'S MOST FAMOUS RIG and HIS PERSONAL FAVORITE RIG WAS.....\"THE LAURIE FAMILY RIG of GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN\"!!

ORIGINAL RED TACK EYES, INSET-LEAD WEIGHTED KEEL -and- SIMPLE, DRILLED-HOLE, LINE-TIE!!!

INCREDIBLE BILL LOOKS LIKE IT WAS CAST FROM THE ACTUAL BILL OF A DEAD CANVASBACK!!! OUTSTANDING HEAD!!!

ARGUABLY LAKE ST. CLAIR\'S MOST OUTSTANDING SNEAK SHOOTING DECOY MAKER EVER!!

SHIPPING INCLUDES INSURANCE

This Beautiful, Well-Formed and Very Rare, \"Bull-Necked\", Very Late in His Career \"Drake Canvasback\", Wood Duck Decoy was hand carved and painted by renowned Michigan carver Ralph Reghi (1914-1995), a longtime resident of Detroit, Michigan.

This old decoy is a beautifully formed, very unique \"Medium Head\" duck decoy by Ralph Reghi. Reghi was part of the Mt. Clemens/Clinton River and Lake St. Clair Flats area school of carvers from the same area and era which put Ralph in with the likes of his mentor and very close friend Jim Kelson, Pecore Fox, Alfred Dreschell and Nick Purdo among many others.

This beautiful, well formed, Drake Canvasback wood duck decoy was hand carved and painted by renowned Michigan carver Ralph Reghi (1910-1995), a longtime resident of Detroit, Michigan. Ralph Reghi was born in Hillsboro, Illinois and was believed to have first hunted waterfowl at the age of 8. In 1918, his family moved to Detroit in the lower east side near the Detroit River where he would do some of his early Michigan duck hunting. In 1926, at the young age of 12, Reghi sought out the 38 year old Jim Kelson for advice on waterfowling.

Above: 1946 Photo of Reghi\'s Famous Carving Companion James Kelson!

Kelson lived at the mouth of the Clinton River where it spills into Lake St. Clair which still is a hunter and fisherman\'s paradise. Ralph wanted to know more about ducks, decoys and the hunting of them and Kelson quickly took a liking to the boy. In the early 1900\'s Jim Kelson took a job at a shipyard and after learning the trade he made and introduced the sneak boat, a new and innovative style of hunting that was still popular with Michigan hunters until roughly the 1960\'s when it gradually was replaced by open water hunters by the layout boat, which is still widely used today. Kelson took the young Reghi with him sneak shooting when clients failed to keep their appointments, but he was relegated to a \"watching\" apprenticeship for over a year. In the summer of 1928, Reghi began to carve decoys with Kelson and sneak shot with the pioneering Kelson on Lake St. Clair that fall at the age of 14. Reghi began using Kelson\'s patterns and over the years the two developed many innovations in decoy making. Reghi exhibited more patience and it showed in his efforts so much that by 1934 Ralph was carving what the majority of the hunters considered the most outstanding duck decoys on all of Lake St. Clair.

Above: Rare Pair of Reghi\'s Decoys from the Very Famous \"Laurie Rig\" that Was Made for a Wealthy Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Family that Gunned Southern Lake St. Clair Near the Detroit River!!

Reghi said that making decoys in those days was pure work and since he and Kelson didn\'t have a band saw, they cut the blocks for the heads and bodies with a coping saw. They would then chop the body blocks with a hatchet before using a draw-knife, spokeshave and rasps to finish the shaping and surfacing. The heads were all done with a pocket knife and Reghi sold many of his completed decoys for 50 cents apiece. Kelson only made decoys for personal use but did sell his old shooting rigs, which he then replaced. Reghi, on the other hand, sold his decoys through a local sporting goods store and directly to Detroit area hunters. Sometime between 1933 and 1935 Reghi carved the famous \"Laurie\" family rig which is arguably one of Michigan\'s finest decoy rigs ever executed and certainly was his favorite. The style of painting found on Kelson and Reghi decoys of the late 1930\'s varied from a simple black and white pattern to elaborate grain combing.

Above: Rare Pair of Reghi\'s \"High Head\" Decoys also from the Very Famous \"Laurie Rig\"!!

From 1941 to 1949, Reghi guided his own hunting parties and in 1950 he quit guiding to open his own marina and boatyard in Detroit. He continued carving decoys in his workshop at his Detroit home which was located nearby his boatyard. Although Kelson would be Reghi\'s closest carving companion, Reghi also spent time with other Michigan carving legends like John Schweikart, Yock Meldrum, Ben and Frank Schmidt, Tom Schroeder, Ralph Johnston and Ferdinand Bach among others. Ralph\'s eye indentations on some decoys resemble those of legend John Schweikart and to different degrees, along with Kelson, they are both credited with being the pioneers of Michigan\'s distinctive \"Bull Neck\" feature on Canvasback decoys. Carving legend Tom Schroeder from Fair Haven on Anchor Bay in Lake St. Clair, was so impressed with Ralph Reghi\'s decoys that he tried to convince him to enter them in a decoy carving contest, but Reghi declined. Ralph Reghi continued to seek perfection in his decoys for the remainder of his life while collectors have continued their search for examples of his decoys like this bird up for sale. This decoy is in great condition considering it saw some action on Lake St. Clair and possibly a trip or two to Saginaw Bay.

Above 2 Photos: Pioneering Ralph Reghi \"Balsa-Bodied\" Decoys Perfected By and Perfected with His Carving Companion Jim Kelson!!

(The Style, Form and Construction of these Balsa-Bodied Decoys Influenced an Entire Generation of Lake St. Clair Carvers!!)

This decoy up for sale is a great example of one of Ralph Reghi\'s Later, Balsa-Bodied Canvasback Decoys designed for the Big, Open and Often Rough Waters of Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. This decoy is also a great example of many of the developmental successes with its wide and stable body, perfect head profile and heavy duty rigging that could put up with any wicked waters Lake St. Clair could throw at them in late fall and early winter and not flinch a bit. Not only did they swim perfectly, they also attracted wary ducks with their realistic look and swimming perfection.

Above Photo: Another Great Form that Reghi and Kelson Gave their Earlier Canvasbacks was the \"Cobra\" Head Style Like those Above!!

Other further developments that make this decoy such a wonderful example of perfection is that it was made and used in conjunction with its deep, body-length keel that is extra heavily weighted with an Inletted lead weight by design for a perfect center of gravity that gave it optimal hydrodynamics. These heavily weighted, solidly constructed decoys like this great example up for sale could ride out anything the Great Lakes could dish out and was one of the favorite birds of many southeastern, Michigan Hunters to gun over. These extraordinarily designed and executed decoys were sturdy and transportable and performed incredibly in any gunning conditions, bar none. This decoy up for sale not only has an awesomely carved bull-necked head, and the red painted tack eyes are absolutely perfectly carved in and located and were mounted with perfect symmetry. This decoy is perfectly symmetrically carved and painted and when Reghi constructed this rig he went to painstaking depths to ensure that they were perfectly formed and carved. This bird is also one of the truest decoys to his later overall form you will see from the carved in head seat to the distinctively carved \"paddle\" tail. This awesome decoy measures 14-1/2\" long x 7-1/4\" wide x 7-1/4\" tall and weighs 1-lb., 10-ozs. An awesome decoy from one of Michigan\'s most renowned carvers and waterfowl hunters. This decoy exhibits many of the great forms of a Ralph Reghi decoy including an awesome bull-neck head and big, wide body meant to be fearlessly used in a Lake St. Clair sneak boat rig.

Above Photo: More Big Bodied Divers Which Would Be the Last of the Big Cedar Blocks Before Switching to Smaller Balsa Decoys in Large Numbers!!

The bill is so fantastic that the carved in mandibles extend the entire length of the bill and the nostrils, nail and bill/head separation are all extraordinarily carved in and executed. It has his great indention or \"ice groove\" on the back right behind the neck that stretches to the typical Reghi paddle tail. The head is mounted from the bottom with a large screw and is secure as the day it was attached. There are no cracks or defects on this decoy of any kind on this bird as Reghi\'s decoys were made with durability and serviceability in mind, and although it does have a few dents to the body, this is very typical of any balsa bodied decoys no matter where they were made.

Above Photo: This Photo Shows a cobra-head on the left and on the right is Two Photos of Decoys Much Like the Style and Form of this Beautiful Decoy Up For sale!!

This decoy is in superb condition, even considering it probably saw a few gunning trips on Lake St. Clair and possible Saginaw Bay. This very old 100%original paint shows Normal Hunting use and wear and it has awesome aged patina and daubed, impasto brush strokes of the thick coat on all areas. These heavily weighted solid birds could ride out anything the Great Lakes could dish out and was one of the favorite birds of many southeastern, Michigan Hunters to gun over. Absolutely perfectly carved in and located original red tack eyes that were mounted and carved in with perfect symmetry. This decoy is perfectly symmetrically carved and painted and when Reghi constructed this rig he went to painstaking depths to ensure that they were perfectly formed and carved. An awesome decoy from one of Michigan\'s most renowned carvers and waterfowl hunters. The decoy exhibits many of the great forms of these solid balsa-bodied, cedar headed rigs including the dimpled and smirking mandibles, indention on the back right behind the neck and typical Reghi paddle tail. The head is mounted from the bottom with a large screw and is secure as the day it was attached. Serviceability in mind along with great luring canvasback form.

This decoy up for sale is a great example of the ongoing evolution of the balsa-blocked decoy that Reghi continued to perfect throughout his carving career after 1940. This decoy is also a great example of many of the developmental successes in his formula with its extremely wide girth (almost 8\"), plus a low body and head profile to not only attract wary ducks with a contented look, but also to keep strong winds at bay.

(Above:) Jim Kelson (on right) with the Christie Brothers on One of His Visits their New found home of Saginaw Bay, Michigan!!

As previously stated, in 1928 Kelson and the much younger Ralph Reghi (1914-1995) began carving cedar decoys together and in 1939 began experimenting with balsa bodied birds. Their first efforts led to birds that flipped, sailed and basically were terrible riding decoys in rough water. They did however lower the center of gravity and redesign the keels to make a nice, light effective, gunning bird of which a great many carvers in the area copied the overall design of. The other most notable Mt. Clemens school of carvers included Alfred Dreschel, Hank Walters and Nick Purdo. After WWII and the abundance of balsa, they switched, as well as most other Mt. Clemens school carvers, to strictly balsa decoys.

THE STORY OF KELSON AND REGHI: Ralph Reghi was born in Hillsboro, Illinois and was believed to have first hunted waterfowl at the age of 8. In 1918, his family moved to Detroit in the lower east side near the Detroit River where he would do some of his early Michigan duck hunting. In 1926, at the young age of 12,Reghi sought out the38 year old Jim Kelson for advice on waterfowling. Kelson lived at the mouth of the Clinton River where it spills into Lake St. Clair, which still is a hunter and fisherman\'s paradise. Ralph wanted to know more about ducks, decoys and the hunting of them and Kelson quickly took a liking to the boy. In the early 1900\'s Jim Kelson took a job at a shipyard, and after learning the trade, he made and introduced the sneak boat to open water hunters in the area.This new and innovative style of hunting was still popular with Michigan hunters until roughly the 1960\'s, when it gradually began to be replaced by the open water hunters with layout boats, which is still widely used today. Although a few die-hards like myself use sneak boats, they are in general rarely seen on Lake St. Clair. Kelson took the young Reghi with him sneak shooting when clients failed to keep their appointments, but Reghi was relegated to a \"watching\"apprenticeship for over a year. In the summer of 1928, Reghi began to carve decoys with Kelson and sneak shot with the pioneering Kelson on Lake St. Clair that fall of 1928 at the age of 14. Reghi began using Kelson\'s patterns and over the years the two developed many innovations in decoy making. Reghi Exhibited more patience and it showed in his efforts so much that by 1934 Ralph was carving what the majority of the hunters considered the most outstanding duck decoys on all of Lake St. Clair. Reghi said that making decoys in those days was pure work and since he and Kelson didn\'t have a band saw, they cut the blocks for the heads and bodies with a coping saw. They would then chop the body blocks with a hatchet before using a draw-knife, spokeshave and rasps to finish the shaping and surfacing. The heads were all done with a pocket knife and Reghi sold many of his completed decoys for 50 cents apiece. Kelson only made decoys for personal use but did sell his old shooting rigs, which he then replaced. Reghi, on the other hand, sold his decoys through a local sporting goods store and directly to Detroit area hunters. Sometime between 1933 and 1935Reghi carved the famous \"Laurie\" family rig which is arguably one of Michigan\'s finest decoy rigs ever executed and certainly was his favorite. The style of painting found on Kelson and Reghi decoys of the late 1930\'s varied from a simple black and white pattern to elaborate grain combing.

Kelson and Reghi experimented with balsa bodied decoys, like this decoy up for sale, and in 1939 they made six of the balsa bodied birds with pine heads and tried them out in Kelson\'s rig. The first time they used the balsa birds, they had to be removed from the rig as they skated, sailed in the wind and rolled over in the rough open-waters of Lake St. Clair. Reghi felt that a heavier keel would solve the problem, so that evening he worked on the keels and tried them out the next day. The decoys rode better but still caught the wind too much. Jim Kelson came up with the solution that night as he cut the top half of the body off of the decoy to give it a lower profile to reduce the buffering in the wind. The decoys proved to be a great success and would greatly influence an entire generation of carvers from the St. Clair Flats/Mt. Clemens school of carvers.

One last problem had to be dealt with and that was how to seal the lighter, softer, open grained balsa wood. That winter of 1939, Reghi tried various methods and combinations of sealers until he discovered one that worked.....His Secret Formula!! The 1940 season brought an end to the era of heavy, bulky cedar decoys for Reghi and Kelson and revolutionized the carvers from the Mt. Clemens school of carvers on the east and north shores of Lake St. Clair. They found the answer to what they had always been looking for, a light decoy with good stability that did not have to be made painstakingly by hollowing. This also happened to coincide with the advent of World War II, when the demand for cedar and pine for allied bridge and other construction in Europe and the South Pacific had an influence on WWII era decoy carvers as well as the fishing lure industry. Cedar became expensive and with the dwindling supply that was commandeered to the war effort, Reghi and Kelson\'s discovery changed an entire era of carving during the 1940\'s for the Mt. Clemens or Clinton River School of carvers and much of the American side of Lake St. Clair. The area that most certainly embraced the balsa decoys could be defined as the North side of the lake including Anchor Bay, East to the St. Clair Flats, south to Strawberry Island and West to the Mouth of the Clinton River. The southern end of lake St. Clair including the gunning grounds off of the Grosse Pointes, South to the Detroit River and Western Lake Erie and the Canadian side of the lake for the most part did not depart from cedar and the virtues of the light birds. The other carvers of note that switched to the readily available balsa and its new functionable design and ease of carving were Alfred Dreschell, Pecore Fox, Hank Walters, Tom Schroeder and Nick Purdo among many others. At the exact same time, Ted Mulliken, the founder of Wildfowler Decoy Company was doing the same in Old Saybrook, Connecticut when he also switched from pine and some cedar to balsa. It is interesting to note that during the war, Ben Schmidt and many others in Metro Detroit never saw the virtue of the balsa bodies and hence never switched from the tried and true yet more expensive and harder to find cedar. After the war, balsa was still very abundant and neither Reghi nor Kelson would never look back and would never carve another cedar bodied bird. Many of the others, however, would eventually switch back to the more durable cedar. From 1941 to 1949, Reghi guided his own hunting parties and in 1950 he quit guiding to open his own marina and boatyard in Detroit. He continued carving decoys in his workshop at his Detroit home which was located nearby his boatyard. Although Kelson would be Reghi\'s closest carving companion, Reghi also spent time with other Michigan carving legends like John Schweikart, Yock Meldrum, Ben and Frank Schmidt, Tom Schroeder and Ferdinand Bach among others. Kelson and Reghi\'s eye indentations on some decoys resemble those of legend John Schweikart and to different degrees, and along with Kelson, they are both credited with being the pioneers of Michigan\'s distinctive \"Bull Neck\" feature on Canvasback decoys. Carving legend Tom Schroeder from Fair Haven on Anchor Bay in Lake St. Clair, was so impressed with Ralph Reghi\'s decoys that he tried to convince him to enter them in a decoy carving contest, but Reghi declined. Jim Kelson passed away on January 12, 1968 and his decoys are some of the most collectible and sought after Michigan decoys along with Schmidt, Schweikart, Schroeder and Reghi among decoy up for sale is a great example of the ongoing evolution of the balsa-blocked decoy that Kelson and Reghi continued to perfect throughout his carving career after 1940. This decoy is also a great example of many of the developmental successes in his formula with its extremely wide girth, plus a low body and head profile to not only attract wary ducks with a contented look, but also to keep strong winds at bay. This balsa bird weighs a very respectable 1-lb. 10-oz. which gives it much of the desired weight advantages of cedar and also the manageability of transport of the lighter balsa they used. These heavily weighted, solidly constructed decoys, once perfected, could ride out anything the Great Lakes could dish out and for a time was one of the favorite birds of many southeastern, Michigan Hunters to gun over. Their light yet extraordinarily designed and executed decoys were more transportable than cedar blocks and yet once perfected they performed incredibly similar and certainly more buoyant. This decoy up for sale not only has an awesomely carved sleeper head, but the red painted tack eyes are absolutely perfectly carved in and located and were mounted with perfect symmetry. This decoy is perfectly symmetrically carved and painted and when Reghi constructed this rig he went to painstaking depths to ensure that they were perfectly formed and carved. This bird is also one of the truest decoys to Kelson\'s overall form you will see, from the perfect head to the distinctively carved \"paddle\" tail. This vintage decoy measures 14-1/2\" long x 7-1/4\" wide x 7-1/4\" tall and weighs 1-lb., 10-ozs. An awesome decoy from one of Michigan\'s most renowned carvers and waterfowl hunters. Even though the head is perfect, Reghi couldn\'t resist a realistic appearance so he added perfect nostrils and bill/head separation are both extraordinarily carved in and executed. The head is mounted from the bottom with a large screw and is secure as the day it was attached. There are no cracks at all on this excellent old decoy and the scattered tiny dents are typical and normal for these balsa bodies gunning birds. Reghi\'s decoys were made with durability and serviceability in mind along with great Plump, Canvasback form.

Other further developments that make this decoy such a wonderful example of balsa body construction perfection is the dense balsa that was used in conjunction with a deep, body-length keel that is extra heavily weighted by design with a very strategically located lead ballast weight for optimal hydrodynamics. This balsa bird weighs a very respectable 1-lb., 10-oz. which gives it much of the desired weight advantages of cedar and also the manageability of transport of the lighter, yet still dense balsa they used. These heavily weighted, solidly constructed decoys like this great example up for sale could ride out anything the Great Lakes could dish out and was one of the favorite birds of many southeastern, Michigan Hunters to gun over. Their light yet extraordinarily designed and executed decoys were more transportable than cedar blocks and yet once perfected they performed incredibly similar and certainly more buoyant. This decoy up for sale not only has an awesomely carved bull-necked head, but the red painted tack eyes are absolutely perfectly carved in and located and were mounted with perfect symmetry. This decoy is perfectly symmetrically carved and painted and when Reghi constructed this rig he went to painstaking depths to ensure that they were perfectly formed and carved. This bird is also one of the truest decoys to his overall form you will see from the head seat to the distinctively carved \"paddle\" tail and measures 14-1/2\" long x 7-1/4\" wide x 7-1/4\" tall and weighs 1-lb., 10-ozs. An awesome decoy from one of Michigan\'s most renowned carvers and waterfowl hunters. This decoy exhibits many of the great forms of a Ralph Reghi decoy including an awesome bull-neck head in original paint with a bill that is so realistic it looks like it was cast from an actual canvasback bill. The bill is so fantastic that the carved in mandibles extend the entire length of the bill and the nostrils, nail and bill/head separation are all extraordinarily carved in and executed. It has his great indention or East Coast \"Ice Groove\" on the back right behind the neck that stretches to the typical Reghi paddle tail. The head is mounted from the bottom with a large screw and is secure as the day it was attached. There are no cracks, chips or defects of any kind on this bird as Reghi\'s decoys were made with durability and serviceability in mind along with great luring canvasback form. If you have any questions or would like any additional photos feel free to email me. Thanks for looking.

The first 16 photos in the beginning section of this Listing are of this Awesome and historically Important Ralph Reghi Drake Canvasback decoy up for sale!

Above Photo: Another Shot of a Laurie Rig Reghi Hen Canvasback!! Photo: More Great Photos of LAURIE RIG Canvasbacks by Ralph Reghi from mid-1930\'s!!!!

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VERY RARE ~SUPERB LATER FORM 1965 RALPH REGHI ~CANVASBACK Rigged Wood Duck Decoy For Sale

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