Excellent Rare Torry Ward GW Teal Duck Decoy Pair Toronto JR Wells Style Hollow
Tory Ward Hollow Green-Winged Teal Pair - Toronto School. Tory Ward at his best! This decoy pair was carved very hollow and made in the JR Wells / Toronto School style. The paint on this pair is also great, with great swirls, details, and lines. Tory Ward was a great decoy painter/carver, and this decoy showcases his brilliance and ability to re-create the decoys of years gone by.
This decoy pair has been hunted over as shown, and they originally had small swing weight son the bottom as shown. If you collect Ward and Toronto school decoys, these are an awesome addition to your collection. Exceptional and original, see photos! I have done my best to document this decoy through both the text above and the photographs. I will do my best to accommodate any and all requests.
The decoy you are seeing is the exact one you will be getting, therefore, there should be no surprises if you have taken the time to scroll through all the photos and read the text. Unless the decoy is listed in 100% original paint, expect some old hunter touch-up.
Almost every single decoy I have for sale was in fact a working decoy part of a larger rig and subject to typical gunning wear including rubs that were typically touched-up between hunting seasons as a way to pass the time during the off-season. Some of these decoys are more than 100 years old and over the course of many hunting seasons it is bound to happen.One of my personal favorite carver's Torry Ward. Below is an excerpt on Ward from the Ward Museum Website. Torry Ward grew up living the life boys only dream of. He spent uncountable days in the marsh learning to hunt and trap, activities that he would pursue ardently, for both pleasure and reward, for the rest of his life. Carrier pigeons ferried messages between his home and York Lodge, alerting his father that guests and supplies were arriving on the Great Northern or the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Delta, as it was his responsibility to transport them from the village to the hunting lodge.
Torry attended a one-room schoolhouse in Delta. In 1937 Aldo Leopold, Miles Pirnie and Albert Hochbaum arrived at Delta to complete Bells vision of a scientific community that would study ways to protect waterfowl populations and habitat.
The Delta Waterfowl Research Center was thus created. Leopold was hired to improve the wild bird hatchery program and brought Pirnie and Hochbaum, both graduate students, along to assist.
Torry was among the students who were given hands-on experience in waterfowl studies and game management, setting the direction of his future. At the age of 13, under the guidance of his older sister Joan and her future husband Albert Hochbaum, Torry completed an extensive study of the Snowshoe hare. Soon after finishing high school, which he attended in Portage Le Prairie 16 miles south of Delta, Torry enlisted in the military, training as a paratrooper. Although it was during World War II, he spent most of his time training and riding motorcycles and never made it overseas.
At the urging of his sister Joan, Torry traveled to Denver to study taxidermy at Jonnass Brothers. So he headed north and took work as a Caterpillar tractor operator. Driving in the northlands was dangerous work. Drivers often were forced to cross over frozen lakes and rivers, risking thin ice, or through muskegs riddled with soft peat bogs. Torry continued to travel the northland for five years until the rich gold mines of Snow Lake, where he worked during the summer months, and a charming girl, Joan Audrey Garrioch, became too attractive to leave.
Torry and Joan married in Portage Le Prairie and settled on Garrick Creek, just south of town, where they raised three children Terry, Dale and Dennis. Torry operated Caterpillar tractors at the nearby airbase and drove a taxi part time. But he most enjoyed wheeling and dealing in collectibles, anything from old cars, to guitars and pianos, to decoys and guns - about anything he could make a buck on. While it may seem he led the life of a no account, Torry was extremely industrious. It read: You cant have bread and loaf too.
Torrys first decoys were carved of native cedar, but carvers he met at the decoys shows in the States encouraged him to try softer, lighter woods, like sugar pine or balsa. He also incorporated new painting techniques, like combing and feather blending, and switched from oil and lead-based paints to acrylics, which dry much faster. And unlike the old-time makers, who only made decoys for what they hunted, Torry experimented with almost every species of waterfowl, from ducks and geese to swans and grebes. If a decoy doesn't meet reserve, let's talk. NOTE: As with most sporting collectibles, along with being a great addition to a game room or home decor, vintage decoys have shown to be a sound investment that seldom decrease in value. Each decoy is truly a One-Of-A-Kind item as no two hand-carved decoys are exactly alike and with so few available decoys from each carver, as time passes, they will surely only increase in value. Be sure to add my to your favorite sellers/searches.I have many more decoys to add from all regions including the Chesapeake Bay, Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, New York, Illinois, the St. The item "Excellent Rare Torry Ward GW Teal Duck Decoy Pair Toronto JR Wells Style Hollow" is in sale since Saturday, October 5, 2019. This item is in the category "Sporting Goods\Hunting\Vintage Hunting\Duck Decoys".
The seller is "dckhuntr" and is located in Butler, Pennsylvania. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada.
- Duck Type: Blue Bill
- Brand: Ontario