The Oshkosh Decoy Show...
...starts on Thursday with walkabout at the Hilton Garden Inn, in, perhaps not too surprisingly, Oshkosh, WI. A friend is coming from Delaware tomorrow to spend the nite here before we drive up on Thursday AM.
We shall likely stop briefly at the West Bend Art Museum to check out the Owen Gromme mechanical Canada goose field decoy which Gromme's daughter Anne Marie donated last year. It is without doubt the most complex mechanical decoy known to exist. Gromme made it c.1950 by carving a reproduction of the flight skeleton in wood and welded and forged iron, real goose wing feathers, and covered it with a papier mache shell body and head.
When a string is pulled the body tilts from horizontal to c.40 degrees, the head pivots at the neck joint so that it stays upright, and the wings unfold and flap in an anatomically accurate manner. When the string is released the body resumes the horizontal and the wings fold up. Pretty wild.
Milwaukee objects conservator Cricket Harbeck cleaned it up and made some minor repairs last year and Milwaukee Public Museum mount maker Emilio Bras made a metal mount to support the wings so one could be unfolded, with the side of the body removed so ppl can see the mechanism.
Not sure what all will turn up at the decoy show- some years nothing very interesting walks in, and some years it does. I'll be satisfied if this durn flu which has now been beleaguering me for 13 days finally is over when I wake up tomorrow.
Which reminds me: It's time to set up the coffee maker and go to bed.
We shall likely stop briefly at the West Bend Art Museum to check out the Owen Gromme mechanical Canada goose field decoy which Gromme's daughter Anne Marie donated last year. It is without doubt the most complex mechanical decoy known to exist. Gromme made it c.1950 by carving a reproduction of the flight skeleton in wood and welded and forged iron, real goose wing feathers, and covered it with a papier mache shell body and head.
When a string is pulled the body tilts from horizontal to c.40 degrees, the head pivots at the neck joint so that it stays upright, and the wings unfold and flap in an anatomically accurate manner. When the string is released the body resumes the horizontal and the wings fold up. Pretty wild.
Milwaukee objects conservator Cricket Harbeck cleaned it up and made some minor repairs last year and Milwaukee Public Museum mount maker Emilio Bras made a metal mount to support the wings so one could be unfolded, with the side of the body removed so ppl can see the mechanism.
Not sure what all will turn up at the decoy show- some years nothing very interesting walks in, and some years it does. I'll be satisfied if this durn flu which has now been beleaguering me for 13 days finally is over when I wake up tomorrow.
Which reminds me: It's time to set up the coffee maker and go to bed.
Labels: Cricket Harbeck, decoy, Gus Moak, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Oshkosh, Owen Gromme, West Bend Art Museum
posted by TTB at
7:09 PM
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