Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Starting with Vacation

At first glance you might wonder, "why blog about an Eddie Bauer display?" This just points out how knocked off and ripped off anything authentic has become. None of the pieces in this cabinet are fake or in a big box store.


This little shack is the "real deal". No faux finishing here, no decoys Made in China. They have been selling decoys on Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for over 40 years. It had a blue and white diamond painted floor that was naturally distressed.


In China, they must not have found a way to mass produce this type of swan decoy--wire armature covered with painted canvas-- cheaply enough to be able to flood the market. This is actually new to me!

Decoys are super expensive, the man who runs this shop told me one sold recently at auction for $5.5 million! He remembers buying them back in the day when you could get truckloads at $6 and $7 a piece, which was a goodly sum then. Apparently that's when he constituted his stock, which is now selling at around $300 for one like this or $900 for a canvas swan.


It makes me wonder what's left that's affordable to collect. I somehow seem to find random stuff, but almost everything has already been "the next big thing". Prices tend to stay at a certain level once this happens. Not that I was planning to collect decoys--country is not my style! Do you collect anything unusual? We'd love to hear about it!

3 comments:

  1. I seem to be acquiring scissors, tape measures and now the shoe horns
    are multiplying. ( I found a use for those to wrap my sari silk ribbon pieces around)
    I do have one antique brass speculum but not likely to be collecting many more of those!
    Your decoys remind me of this old Maine guy that was making decoys and selling them on the roadside. He'd carve in old dates on the bottom saying "the tourists seem to like 'em better like that"

    xoxo Kim

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  2. Kim, I wonder if the decoy man here did the same with his decoys!

    Come to think of it, I have a pretty good thimble and yardstick collection. We used to have a trepanning instrument, for primitive brain surgery. Almost as gross as a speculum!

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  3. Hi Deborah, Thanks so much for your recent visit and comment. Sweet!
    These decoys are so cool and yes I remember when they were cheap at farm auctions in Wisconsin. Many were hand carved just cause people had “hobbies” and not alot of money. You can still find cheap stuff out
    there. I go almost every weekend and find something amazing. Enjoy the spring and thanks

    ReplyDelete