"Bowman" Style Curlew

If you ask any serious collector to name the top 3 classic old time decoy makers who made shorebirds, #1 and #2 would without question be Elmer Crowell and William Bowman.  The third might be Lothrop Holmes, Nathan Cobb, Joe Lincoln, Obediah Verity, or one or two others, but Crowell and Bowman would be at the top.  In fact, their styles were so similar that until the 1960’s many Bowman shorebirds were attributed to Crowell. Both were masters, both in carving and painting, but Bowman was probably a more interesting character.

A cabinet maker by trade in the mid to late 1800’s, he lived most of the year in Bangor, Maine, but he spent summers living in a tent in the dunes near Lawrence, on the south shore of Long Island, where he hunted and observed the shorebirds.  He had a fondness for hard liquor and kept a jug close by.  He frequented a local roadhouse and often traded carvings for liquor. In fact, boxes of his carvings in mint condition were found gathering dust in the attic of a local (long gone) watering hole. Drunk or sober; it didn’t matter.  Bowman’s birds are masterpieces.  Anatomically, they are as close to real birds as working decoys can be, often with articulated thigh and wing carving, and his paint is exquisite.  It’s no wonder ,then, that a large Bowman Curlew sold for nearly $465,000 at Sotheby’s in 2000. A Lesser Yellowlegs with  thigh carving and mint original paint brought $244,500 in the same auction.

I carved the Curlew shown here based on a Bowman that sold “only” for around $85,000 and I came to appreciate what a master painter Bowman was when I painted it. It took awhile, but it was really fun to just let it rip!  This one is only slightly aged and has a nice patina. It’s about 11” from bill to tail, has my initials carved under the tail, and comes with a wood stand.

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