Chronological History of the Decoys Carved by Charles Sumner Bunn

Chronological History of the Decoys Carved by Charles Sumner Bunn (1865-1952), Shinnecock Reservation, Southampton, New York,

Wrongly Attributed to William Bowman for 37 Years

By Jamie Reason ã 2005

 

Below are the literary references for the establishment of the faux history for the “Bowman” decoys.

 

1.     Wildfowl Decoys (1934) by Joel Barber, Plate 53, yellowlegs Plate 55, dowitcher, Elmer Crowell, Plate 56, plover, Lawrence, L.I.

“To show the degree of perfection to which snipe decoys were carried, it gives me great pleasure to call attention to the yellowlegs in Plate No. 53 and the dowitcher in Plate No. 55.  The first of these decoys was located on the Connecticut shore, the second in the rig of Mr. Frederick Becker of Long Island.  Both were made by one man, Mr. Elmer Crowell of East Harwich, Mass.

2.     Decoys at the Shelburne Museum by Webster and Kehoe, page 107, Yellowlegs No. S-73-B, carved by Elmer Crowell of East Harwich, Mass. (from Barber collection, same bird as on page 68, Plate 53, Wildfowl Decoys).  Page 111, No. S-72-B, dowitcher, maker Elmer Crowell, East Harwich, Mass., date c.1900.  Same bird as Plate 55, Wildfowl Decoys, Barber collection. 

3.     American Bird Decoys (1965) by William J. Mackey, Jr.  Page 65, ruddy turnstone and golden plover by Crowell.  Plate 87, a pair of Long Island dowitchers.  There origin is definitely not known.  Page 64, Hudsonian curlew from the Lloyd Johnson collection.

4.     The Art of the Decoy American Bird Carvings (1965) by Adele Earnest.  Page 173, Plate 150, curlews and miniatures.  “Miniatures have Crowell stamp and curlews are attributed to him.”  Collection of Nina Fletcher, Little Essex, Mass.  Sold by Sotheby’s in 1994, D. O’Brien collection.

5.     Decoy Collector’s Guide (1966-67).  “Bill Bowman Shorebirds” by W.J. Mackey Jr.  For full text, see book.  This begins the legend of “Old Bill Bowman” and the association of the name Bowman with the Bunn carvings.  The article states Mackey visited the Herrick Brothers in their Manhattan office where they told him it was “Old Bill Bowman” who made what at the time were being called “early Crowell’s.”  That is all it took in the way of research.  The Herrick Brothers said their grandfather had gotten them from Bowman and he was the maker, and they were Bowman’s for 37 years without a call for more research, or any research, other than the Herricks said Bowman made them and Mackey parroted what they told him, and he gave them full credit for their discovery (?)  Auction houses, collectors, dealers, and authors began to call them Bowman’s.

6.     American Decoys (1972), Quintina Colio, page 15.  Black duck by Bill Bowman of Long Island, NY.  Pages 68-69, shorebirds by William Bowman.  Seven shorebirds including the two great curlews and tucked head yellowlegs from the Mackey collection.  Once again, no more research is added to the provenance.

7.     North American Decoys, Winter 1973, one year after Mackey’s death.  Titled, “Bill Bowman, The Man Who Almost Never Was”.  This article is a rehash of previous statements made by the Herricks and Mackey in the Decoy Collector’s Guide.  It adds nothing new, nor does it introduce any new evidence or show any research on why they should be called Bowman, other than the Herricks and the late Bill Mackey said Bowman was the maker.

8.     North American Decoys, (1977), Part One, pages 12-13, shows photos of “Bowman” and “Verity” shorebirds.  In the photo is a man identified as Herold E. Herrick Jr.  By now, ten years have passed since the first attribution to Bill Bowman, without any further research, and they are generally, without hesitation, called Bowman’s by museums, authors, collectors, auction houses, and dealers.

9.     Gunner’s Paradise (1979), Jane Townsend, The Museums at Stony Brook.  Page 24, “William Bowman”.

 

“More than 40 shorebird decoys by William Bowman and Obediah Verity are in The Museums collection.  While their carving styles are different—Bowman was a carver of realistic decoys, Verity of primitive ones—they were both master craftsmen.

 

The decoys by William Bowman are tours de force of remarkable realism.  They combine a craftsman’s absolute control of his medium and a naturalist’s knowledge of the physical structure and behavior patterns of birds.  The Museums collection of 20 Bowman decoys consists of two Hudsonian Curlews, six Greater Yellowlegs, five Lesser Yellowlegs, two Golden Plover, two Black-bellied Plover, three Dowitchers and one marlin.

 

From the little that is known, William Bowman came to Long Island for the sole purpose of gunning snipe and left when the snipe departed.  It was only in 1966 that he was identified as the carver of these decoys.  That they were exceptional decoys was easily recognized: William Mackey, Jr., in American Bird Decoys (1965), called them ‘the finest shorebird decoys that have been found anywhere.’  However, in 1965, the best identification that could be given to them was that they were from Long Island.  Some came from the rig of George Pennell, an outstanding gunner of Seaford, who reported that he had gotten them from John H. Verity, another gunner and bayman from Seaford.  Meanwhile at the Shelburne Museum and elsewhere the decoys were thought to be the early work of the great Massachusetts carver, Elmer Crowell.

 

These decoys, however, were structurally different from Crowell’s work.  They also had a Long Island provenance rather than one from Cape Cod.  William Mackey, Jr. continued to search for the identity of the carver.  His search ended in 1966 in the Wall Street offices of Harold and Newbold L. Herrick, sons of Harold Herrick.  There, on display, were Dowitcher, plover and yellowlegs decoys, all the work, Bill Mackey was to learn, of one William Bowman.

 

The story of William Bowman, handed down in the Herrick family, broke in the 1966-67 Annual of the Decoy Collector’s Guide.  He was identified as a cabinetmaker from Bangor, Maine, who came to the beaches of Lawrence, Long Island, in summer, to gun snipe and make decoys.

 

‘Friendly and lazy seem to describe the man who had two hobbies: carving and lifting the cup that cheers.  The output of his knife was in direct relationship to his thirst and until a trip to the village of Lawrence was necessary for supplies and a full jug, not a single shaving would spring from his knife blade.  The measured output of this hermit’s efforts are further curtailed by the briefness of his stay.  Once the shorebird flights were past, Long Island would see no more of him until the following year.

 

Bowman’s annual visits to Lawrence ended in the early 1900s.  Harold Herrick, Jr. said that his grandfather, Harold Herrick, had used Bowman’s decoys for his own snipe hunting.  The only positive documentation that William Bowman lived is found in the gunning diary of the elder Harold Herrick (father of the two Herrick brothers who identified the decoys).  Two entries confirm that Bill Bowman gunned the Island’s marshes near Lawrence: on August 21, 1890, Herrick noted, ‘Old Bill Bowman who gave me the place had killed four before I arrived;’ and on August 31, 1891, after listing the weather and the number of birds shot, Herrick noted, ‘Bowman has been in Tent(?) for a month has not got over six birds any day.’

 

As this catalog is published, information on a William Bowman has been discovered, but whether or not it is the William Bowman has not been established.  For this reason, it is presented in Appendix A in the hope it will provide a base for further investigation.

 

While Bill Bowman remains elusive, his decoys satisfy the most demanding of critics.  The two Hudsonian Curlews (figs. 174-175) unrivaled, climax the Museums collection, and, perhaps, crowned the carver’s career as well.  The Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs (fig, 212-213) vie for top honors.  X-rays taken of one curlew reveal that it is made from halves hollowed out and joined together with white lead and hand-cut square nails.

 

As in other Bowman decoys, the glass eyes are placed in the recessed eye sockets, the wings are carved in deep natural relief, and the primaries rise above the tail.  All exhibit similar painting techniques.  Bowman daubed blacks and browns over white-to-tan bodies to indicate plumage patterns.  Very few show any other colors with the exception of the Dowitchers, which display a blush of red on their breasts.  Treatment with linseed oil has given them a yellow cast, and time has further dulled their colors.

 

The stamp of “T.F. Norton” is on one of the curlews as well as on 15 of the other Bowmans.  This possibly refers to Thomas F. Norton, a carpenter living in Hewlett’s section of Nassau County in 1900, not too far from Lawrence.  It is presumed that Norton was a sportsman and put his stamp on the decoys to indicate ownership.  After seeing the fine carvings of William Bowman one can only conclude that were not turned out with a jackknife on the beaches of Lawrence.  They are the work of a consummate craftsman.”

 

10.  Not one substantiated fact ties any William Bowman to any decoy or to any evidence that this man ever carved.  It also begs one to question why the majority of shorebird decoys carry the “T.F. Norton” brand, not the Herrick’s.  Again, the Herrick family said is the evidence.

11.   Page 34, Figure 182, dowitcher decoy by W. Bowman.  This bird is described unequivocally as a Bowman dowitcher.  Page 40, Figure 213, once again they use no caveats, yellowlegs by W. Bowman.  Page 42, pair of black ducks, c1900, William Bowman, possible 1824-1906.  Page 109, 112, 113, 114, 120, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129.  Twenty shorebirds all listed as being William Bowman, possibly 1824-1906, Lawrence, Long Island.  Page 136, Appendix A:

 

“The identity of William Bowman decoy carver has not been

  firmly established.  Below is the information on his background that

      research has produced.

 

1  William H. Bowman (1824-1906)

Sawmill Worker

Old Town, Maine

 

A William H. Bowman is listed on the U.S. census record for 1870 for the town of Old Town, just north of Bangor, Maine.  Age: 46 Occupation: Sawmill worker.  Wife: Bertha A., aged 44.

Son: Willie E., aged 12.

 

The 1900 U.S. census record again lists William H. Bowman: age 75; occupation Millman; months not employed, eight; boarding in the house of Mary Spencer.

 

His death occurred in Old Town on March 21, 1906, at age 81.  The death certificate states his place of birth as unknown, his father as Henry Bowman and his mother as Betsey Willey.  The birthplace of his parents was unknown.  His father’s occupation was listed as ‘sailor.’

 

An obituary notice appeared in The Bangor Daily News of March 23, 1906: ‘The death of William H. Bowman occurred on Wednesday at the age of 82 years in Old Town.  The funeral services will be held at 2 P.M., Saturday at the residence of H.F. Bailey, Great Works.’

 

A resident of Old Town has provided the additional information that Bowman’s wife was Bertha Turner (1826-1885), and that their son Willie, who was born in 1857, died in 1870.

 

Great Works, where Bowman’s funeral was held, is the mill section of Old Town.  The mills were lumber mills, where logs were sawed into lumber.

 

Could William H. Bowman be the carver?  Certain facts correlate with oral history on Bill Bowman.  This Bowman came from Old Town (Bangor is about 20 miles from Old Town), died about the time that Bill Bowman stopped coming to Lawrence to hunt snipe, and would have been about the right age, 66, to be ‘Old Bill Bowman’ whom Herrick saw on the marshes in 1890.  Furthermore, Bill Bowman was said to be a cabinetmaker.  William H. Bowman was a sawmill worker.

 

2 William Bowman, Wheelwright, Queens

 

A William Bowman is listed in Curtin’s City Directory of New York for 1868 as a wheelwright in Flushing; his house was on Washington Street near Prince Street.  This Bowman could not be found on any census lists.

 

3 William A. Bowman of Brooklyn

 

A William A. Bowman is listed on the U.S. census for Kings County, New York, for 1900; age 67, born in August, 1833, in Pennsylvania.  He was listed with his brother-in-law, William W. Coaplank, at Nolan’s Lane, ‘two sides’ from Rockaway West.”

 

This book has been one of  the sources used for articles on Bill

Bowman.  None mention the part about his identity never being

established.

12.   Shorebird Decoys by Henry Fleckenstein Jr., 1980.  Page 15, a list of “The Great Artists Living in Areas Along the Atlantic Coastline.”  In the list of five greats is Bill Bowman.  Plate 39, willet decoy by William Bowman of Lawrence, Long Island, New York.  One of the acknowledged masters of the South Shore carvers c1880 (a pseudo-fact).  Plate 44 & 45, dowitchers by William Bowman.  Plate 48, black-bellied plover by William Bowman, who summered at Lawrence on the South Shore of Long Island and spent his winters working as a cabinet maker in Bangor, Maine (another pseudo-fact).  Little more is known of the man.  Plate 49, another plover listed as a William Bowman.  Other “Bowman” decoys are found, most with text extolling what a master carver and painter Bill Bowman was.

13.   Decoys A North American Survey by Gene and Linda Kangas, 1983.  Plate 71 & 116, black duck by William Bowman, Herrick rig, Stony Brook collection.  Plate 117, George Thomson collection, Bowman goose.  Selected bibliography, Gunner’s Paradise, Museums at Stony Brook, Townsend.

14.   Articles such as found in Sporting Classics, January-February 1987, “The Search for Bill Bowman” by Jim Casada.  A well-written article filled with pseudo-facts gleaned from Herrick lore with one sentence stating that Bowman was a master carver of unparallel ability, with the next sentence stating there is really no proof he existed.  Again, this article adds no real facts on Bowman or any recent or relevant research on a carver named Bowman.

15.   Shorebirds: The Birds, The Hunters, The Decoys by Levinson and Headley, 1991.  “Long Island, New York Decoys,” page 63-64, relates the same Herrick family and Mackey lore and reprints some of the 1966-67 Decoy Collector’s Guide.  They later state, “While not 100 percent authenticated, and although several other Bill Bowmans have been located, the person described seems to be the best candidate for the craftsman sought by William Mackey Jr. in the sixties (this is a Bowman from Maine).”  Plate 5-1, dowitcher, William Bowman, Lawrence, LI, ca1875.

16.   Collector’s Guide to Decoys by Linda and Gene Kangas, 1992.  Page 106 lists some of the earliest documented non-native decoys and lists William Bowman as one, which is wrong on two counts; Bowman is not documented, and the “Bowman” Bunn carvings are native.  Page 110, scoter by William Bowman, Long Island.  Page 153, black-bellied plover by William Bowman, LI, NY.

17.   Decoys by Linda and Gene Kangas, 1992.  More decoys called Bowman, all based on the original Herrick lore told to Mackey.  No research and no call for research.  None seem to need it. 

18.   Other books from the 1990s, such as the two volumes of The Collector’s Guide to Decoys by Bob and Sharon Huxford, give prices at auction realized and cites William Bowman, Lawrence, LI, NY as the maker with information supplied by the auction houses.

19.   Call to the Sky, the Decoy Collection of James M. McCleery, M.D. by the Houston Museums of Natural Science, Robert Shaw, October 1992-January 1993.  Long Island Bill Bowman, page 36, black-bellied plover, whimbrel, lesser yellowlegs, long-billed curlew.

“Bill Bowman’s best work achieved a degree of sculptural detail and

observation not even attempted by other carvers.  Nuances of the

bird’s muscle and bone structure were suggested beneath the subtly

painted surface.  His painting was quick and sure and provided an

ideal complement to the strength of his carving.  With a palette far

more limited than such contemporary virtuosos as John Dilley and

Elmer Crowell, Bowman created a very effective suggestion of soft

layers of feathering.”

 

No new research is presented, just that they are by Bill Bowman,

possibly 1824-1906, Lawrence.

20.  Decoy Magazine, May-June 1999, page 24, “Collector’s Corner.” 

Article written by Jamie Reason, adapted from article originally

written for the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association newsletter,

purported to be a historical look back at the “known” carvers of 1899

and the world they lived in, as we were preparing to move into a new

century.  In the article, some of Long Island’s most famous “known”

carvers are mentioned.

 

“In Lawrence, the finest carved and painted snipe stool on the West

Ends, if not the world, were being made by ‘Old’ Bill Bowman.  His

shorebirds were exquisitely carved and impressionistically painted,

and in 1899 he was likely 74.”

 

More pseudo-facts based on previously printed pseudo-facts, and

passed along as true historical facts.

 

21.   The James M. McCleery auction, Sotheby’s with Guyette & Schmidt, New York City, January 22-23, 2000.  Page 98, “Long Island Shorebirds”:

 

      “Oral Tradition holds that Bill Bowman (poss. 1824-1906) was a

cabinetmaker from Bangor, Maine who traveled to Lawrence, Long

Island each summer to work as a market gunner and decoy maker. 

While he carved a few ducks, brant and geese, Bowman focused

primarily on shorebirds, producing the full range of species hunted on

Long Island in the late 1800’s, including long-billed and Hudsonian

curlews, black-bellied and golden plovers, dowitchers, yellowlegs,

and ruddy turnstones.  Bowman was a masterful observer, and he

captured the contours of his subjects’ faces and bodies more precisely

than any other shorebird carver.  Looking at a Bowman, one senses

the bird’s skull, skeleton san taut or relaxed muscles below the well-

painted feathers.  His best works, exemplified by the two magnificent

curlews in the McCleery collection, rank among the finest bird

portraits created by any American artist.”

 

A list of literature is presented in support of the Bowman attribution

for the ten shorebirds attributed to Bowman in the auction:

Call to the Sky, Shaw, American Decoys, Colio, Shorebird Decoys,

Fleckenstein, Gunner’s Paradise, Townsend, American Bird Decoys,

Mackey, Decoy Collector’s Guide 1966-67, Sorenson (Mackey).  All

the literature cited, except for Mackey’s American Bird Decoys, are

based on the Herrick’s lore told to Mackey and first printed in the

Decoy Collector’s Guide 1966-67.  One big circle of pseudo-facts that

have come to be the faux history of Bill Bowman, built on air, not

facts or research.

 

22.  Christie’s New York, The Russell B. Aitken collection of wildfowl

decoys, in association with Guyette & Schmidt, Inc., Saturday,

January 18, 2003.  Lot 1309, a black-bellied plover, William

Bowman, Lawrence, New York, last quarter 19th Century.