2 kids in a candy store...

P

Pat Gregory

Well-known member
Tim Speight and I take trips together we call "adventures". Last Friday we made the trek north to visit long time vintage decoy collector and historian, Joe Tonelli. Joe has an amazing collection and was gracious enough to share it with Tim and I. He and his wife Donna have dedicated their lives to preserving and promoting decoy history and, decoy collecting. Visit their website www.edecoy.org . We didn't film this trip but, hope to go back up to shoot some footage for the www.thedecoyshed.org to have Joe and Donna tell their story. I appreciate all they've done to preserve and promote decoy history and collecting. Enjoy!

Joe holding one of 2 known sleeper decoys of my great grandad's...
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The late Harold Haertel canvasback and miniature goose...
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Enoch Reindahl pintail. Probably the finest vintage decoy I've seen...
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1936 Ward Bros. Canvasback...
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Nate Quillen "helmet head" redheads...
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Joe Seiger canvasback...
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For you callmakers and collectors, check this out! Almost all Charlie Perdew calls and custom calls... Amazing!!!
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Canada Goose Decoy Display. The second one from the right in the first row, is by my great grandad. There is also a Ben Schmidt blue goose decoy...
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Excellent Charlie Walker pintail...
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Great collection! Who made the bluebill pair in the center of third pic from the bottom? Is there a way we could get more shots of those? Something about those appeal to me greatly.
 
Lee - Those are Torry Ward bluebills. Joe bought a dozen of them from Torry back in the 1980's. They are from the Gaylord Rig and, unfortunately, spoken for. I'll be posting up some pictures of them so folks can get a better look. They are great, perky bills and have excellent paint on them. Pat
 
Several folks have asked about the bluebills in the tailgate picture of our pick. They were made in 1985 by Torry Ward of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba for the Gaylord Rig at the Waterhen Lodge on Lake Manitoba. Here is a link to some history on Torry from an article by Donna Tonelli from Decoy Magazine... http://www.decoymag.com/features/tidbits/torryward-march2002.htm

I was fortunate enough to meet Torry when he was alive back in the 80's at the Midwest Decoy Show in St. Charles, Illinois. As a young collector I purchased a bluebill drake from Torry back in the mid 80's. It was excellent! Regretfully, I did not buy the hen and later sold the drake. These are excellent bluebills and, we are going to actually hunt them this fall in a hunt at the Delta Marsh. More to come on that... Enjoy...

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Other than the eye position, particularly on the drake, those Ward scaup accurately capture every aspect of bluebills. Thanks for the close ups of both these pairs.
 
post up a pic of that KD decoy. The one that the head stores in the body. The man was relly thinking when he came up with that design
 
Pat

Thanks for the photo's. Lotta really great Decoys! I always looked forward to seeing what Joe & Donna brought to the old ODCCA Westlake show. Their seminars, and vast knowledge were always much appreciated. We all are a lot greyer now, but the Decoys are still masterpieces in any time frame.
 
those blue bills are killer!!! How much did Tim drool while walking around? I know I would need to wear a bib
 
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