A pair of preening bluewing teal by the Ward Brothers will auction at Guyette & Deeter on February 14.
Valued at $14,000-18,000, the decoys were manufactured in around 1966 and were exhibited at the Ward Museum in Crisfield, Maryland that same year.
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.
 The Bluewing teal pair were exhibited in the Ward Museum |
The brothers began their career as decoy builders from their barber shop. They would work on decoys during quiet periods to sell to tourists and local hunters, and soon came to be recognised as masters of their craft.
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.
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