Having been raised and living most of my life in one of the Mesopotamias of decoy making (Chesapeake Bay area) I can tell you that you are about to embark on a pricing minefield similar to that encountered in the gun buying, selling and trading world. There are thousands of perfectly authentic, aesthetically pleasing, well-made decoys out there whose makers are essentially unknown. Any of them can do much to accent a display, photo layout, or magazine article backdrop as a prop. When you start to chase the more well-known makers you had better know what you're looking at as well as looking for. If someone is offering you an authentic decoy from a known maker, they should have some type of provenance available to document their claim. Most working decoys were unsigned when they were made, but many were signed by their still-living makers as people began to collect them and wanted ironclad proof of the maker's identity. Good examples are the thousands of Madison Mitchell decoys carved from the 1940s through the 1970s and later signed during waterfowl expo days or museum commemorations. Also learn to diffentiate between a true working decoy and one that was made to mimic a true working decoy (e.g, never put in the water) and of course a decorative decoy, produced strictly for show. Trying to tell whether a decoy is an authentic Mason or Wards or Mitchell, Gibson, Urie, etc. is strictly a crapshoot if you have no experience looking at them. If they are marked, you still need to know what to look for to avoid a fake. Sort of like case colors and barrel blue on guns, the most arcane factors can determine whether you are being offered a real one or not. Especially in the higher-dollar categories, do as Steve Fyested says in the "Blue Book", "...Shop carefully, seek expert advice, and always get a receipt." You should be able to find authentic, provenanced working decoys in standard species by known makers for $150 up to $500 for individual birds depending on maker and condition of original paint, cracks, replaced eyes, missing keel weights, etc. etc. etc. Authentic old gunning decoys regardless of maker do much to accent an othewise ho-hum display or photograph. KBM
