![]() The Bluewing teal pair were exhibited in the Ward Museum |
Today their decoys are hugely collectible, with one goldeneye drake selling for $109,250 at an auction in 2006.
A rare "Lumberyard type" yellowlegs produced in the late 19th century carries an identical estimate of $14,000-18,000.
Such decoys were produced by anonymous workers at lumberyards across America, typically while they were on their lunchbreaks, and vary widely in quality and value.
One specimen sold for $37,500 at Sotheby's New York in 2009.
A pair of mergansers by well known Seabrook, New Hampshire maker George Boyd are valued at $10,000-14,000.
They were discovered in a garage in 2013 and were executed in the early 1900s, during a transitional period in Boyd's style.