Waterfowling on the Chesapeake, 1819-1936

C. John Sullivan is director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation and a nationally recognized expert, appraiser, and collector of American waterfowl decoys. He is the author of Decoys: North American Carving Masterpieces Calendar for 2010 and 2011; Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, Decoys & Long Guns: Tales of Carroll's Island Ducking Club; and Old Ocean City, the latter published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. He has contributed to Decoy Magazine and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Quarterly and writes a quarterly column, "Collector's Corner," for the magazine The Canvasback. Decoys in his personal collection have been exhibited at the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, and Maryland Historical Society. He is a lifelong resident of Fallston in Harford County, Maryland.

• Contents:Acknowledgments Prologue On Entering the Becks' GarageTales From the Days of Plenty The Gunning Clubs Shooting Methods The Era of the Sinkbox Chesapeake Bay Retrievers Waterfowling Firearms Protecting a Maryland Tradition Legislative Time LineFolk Art Duck Decoys In the Shop of Paul Gibson Collecting Decoys in Harford County Branded Decoys Teal of the Upper Chesapeake A Whiteness of SwansPortraits of Carvers Charles Nelson Barnard Robert F. McGaw, Jr. Samuel Treadway Barnes The Hollys of Havre de Grace The Grahams of Charleston The Crisfield Carvers The Unknown CarverEpilogue Advice to a CollectorAppendix Maryland Decoy Carvers Sources Index