Edgerton Decoy Show on a sunny Saturday

I spent the day driving around southeastern Wisconsin. First to the decoy show in Edgerton, which is an hour and a bit SW of Milwaukee, and a trifle down-river from Lake Koshkonong, once the greatest canvasback shooting lake in America. Mostly I saw friends and smoozed with a couple people I didn't know before, and splurged on a bowl of chili which was highly recommended by a couple decoy aficionados. Turned out to be good enuf to go back for another bowl, which at a buck a pop constituted both a screaming deal and my total expenditures for the day. No, I take back that last: the show cost two bucks to get into.

One reason I go to the show is the hope some non-collecting local will walk in with a bag full of interesting decoys for sale. A fellow did show up with a box full, one of which was quite interesting, tho as usual in rough shape. He wanted ppl to tell him what they all were worth, including ten he hadn't brought along and wouldn't allow anyone to go see, said he wouldn't sell any anyway, and struck me as a tad belligerent, so some of us lost interest. I have no idea what happened with him or them.

The canvasback drake I liked (and was the only one anyone liked) seemed to have a body modeled after a Dodge from the 1880s, but was extremely hollow, unlike Dodges, and had a very nice head. Only the metal stems remained of the glass eyes, and the paint was heavily worn and flaking, but an interesting piece. So it goes.

Then off several miles to see a friend's decoy collection, and well worth the time that was, both for the decoys and the paintings stacked like cordwood around the place. I lost track of all the Owen Gromme oils hanging on the walls, and those were a small part of the oils from various periods and places.

Then eastward to the antique malls in Delavan and Lake Geneva, both of which are worth a look-see, but produced nothing worth parting with lucre, filthy or otherwise, for. I debated a late 19th century mahogany frame with gilded fillet but I have too durn many already and not enuf to fill them with- my interest in engravings of the Pacific tapers off in the 1840s.

It was a glorious blue sky day, and with a total of four clams out of pocket, plus gas, and friends, so all in all a good Saturday in the Wilds of Wisconsin.