It seems only fair that every man, woman, and child ought to own a Stevens Decoy. If not for liberal entitlement, then, at least, to stimulate a "decoy economy".
You may think my hope for everyone to want a Stevens Decoy is to increase the value of my collection, but that is not the case. I haven’t enough of them to make a difference. And it’s not because my wife‘s family lives close to Weedsport. Although, occasionally over the past 37 years, she has jokingly accused me of marrying her with geographic motives! My reason to invite others to collect Stevens Decoys is very simple. It's because they’re so easy to identify. Back in 1987, while I was reading Joel Barber’s Widlfowl Decoys book, and knowing I couldn’t identify any decoy makers as yet, I chose to collect Stevens Decoys because they all had two 7/8th's inch drilled holes on the bottom; one for the recessed staple and one for the recessed lead ballast. Many, I thought, were also stenciled with the Stevens name. With that information I could become a Stevens collector much easier and much faster than pursuing any other makers. That hope turned into a lifelong pursuit of learning about Stevens Decoys.
Today, it’s even easier to become a Stevens Decoy collector because of the books written about them and, more recently, the access to instant information. My database of Stevens Decoys is the tool I use to help other collectors. Just email me on the contact page. At last, I think this little website site is finally robust enough to offer something interesting to most visitors. So if you find an essay you like, please post a link somewhere. Many thanks!
