Shorebird Decoy

Anthony Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) lived his entire life in East Harwich, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, where he took an early interest in hunting and birds. He carved his first decoy around the age of ten, and his father gave him a shotgun for his twelfth birthday. The next fall he built a blind on a nearby pond and shot ninety seven black ducks that first season. By about 1908 he was carving decoys in quantity, and within a decade he expanded his work to include not just functional decoys but miniature song and shorebirds that were exceptional works of art. Carved entirely from cedar, Crowell created this preening shorebird (likely a lesser yellowlegs) around 1915. Crowell's decorative decoys are considered by collectors and scholars to be among the finest examples of their kind.