Vintage Pintail Drake Duck Decoy by Fresh Air Dick Janson Sonoma Creek, Ca 1920s
Vintage Pintail Drake Duck Decoy by Fresh Air Dick Janson Sonoma Creek, California circa 1920 to 1930s. Please examine pictures as they show the condition. Decoy has older repaint and tight neck cracking.
Has dents, rubs and a few shot scars, but this working decoy displays nicely. Please see my other listing for the hen. Here is some info on the very desirable to be owned artist.
Richard Ludwig Fresh-Air Dick Janson. Sonoma Creek, California active c.
Richard Ludwig Fresh-Air Dick Jansonships carpenter, commercial fisherman, market hunter and the most prolific and influential of the early California decoy makers. Born in Estonia in 1872, little is known of this colorful characters early life. Fresh-Air Dick Janson (FAD) lived on a floating ark at the mouth of Sonoma Creek where it enters the San Pablo Bay.
Janson used raw muscle power and primitive hand tools to fashion his decoys with redwood bodies and sugar pine heads. Most of FADs decoys were solid carved but hollow models utilizing precisely fitted chest plugs are not uncommon. The skeg (keel) design was generally implemented on his diver species.
Smooth, featherless models are known. FAD carved high-necked models for use on the San Pablo Bay pickleweed marshes. The high-necked pintails are rare and only a few high-necked canvasbacks are known to exist.In place of a primer coat of paint, Janson soaked his blanks in linseed oil and finished them with a mix of white lead and oil-based colors. Pintails are the most common species found followed by mallards, canvasbacks, bluebills and green-winged teal. Janson's final product was a simple, graceful and solid design with an intrinsic aesthetic. The sports were not kind to Jansons weakness (alcohol and cigarettes). After World War II, FADs world began to crumble around himthe commercial fishing was waning, the vast numbers of ducks were in decline, the duck clubs were closing, the highways were widening and the plentiful and cheap plastic decoy substituted for the hand mad art form.
The tragic life of this salty sailor is marked by the brilliance of his art. Today, Fresh-Air Dick Janson decoys are among the most prized by west coast Decoys of the Pacific Coast by Miller and Hanson, p. 142-152, The Great Book of Wildfowl Decoys by Joe Engers, p. 267-268, Decoy Magazine, Summer 1982, Vol.
The item "Vintage Pintail Drake Duck Decoy by Fresh Air Dick Janson Sonoma Creek, Ca 1920s" is in sale since Saturday, August 3, 2019. This item is in the category "Sporting Goods\Hunting\Vintage Hunting\Duck Decoys". The seller is "rayv53" and is located in Smithton, Illinois. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Viet nam, Uruguay.
- Material: Wood
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
- Duck Type: Pintail
- Features: Stationary/Stick-Up Style