NATHAN COBB, JR., COBB ISLAND, VIRGINIA, CIRCA 1870

Details

An exceedingly Rare And Important Hollow Carved Canada Goose
Nathan Cobb, Jr., Cobb Island, Virginia, circa 1870
Head is in swimming position and turned approximately 15 degrees to one side, vertical neck seat: Typical Cobb "V" tail carving,
very old working overpaint retains subtle blended feathering on the sides and back, which may be the original surface; the surface shows some flaking and wear with overpaint to the white under the tail either worn down or having been taken down earlier in the bird's history; several age lines in the body; crack in the side of the head was filled and touched up during use; several other cracks in the neck, and visible shot marks on the side
26½ in. long

Provenance

Adele Earnest

Literature

Adele Earnest. Folk Art in America: A Personal View (Exton, PA, 1984), p. 166. (Illustrated)
Adele Earnest. The Art of the Decoy: American Bird Carvings (New York, 1965), p. 123. (Illustrated)
Henry Fleckenstein. Southern Decoys of Virginia and the Carolinas (Exton, PA, 1983), p. 183. (Illustrated)
Gene and Linda Kangas. Decoys: a North American Survey, (Spanish Fork, UT, 1983), p. 17. (Illustrated)
Henry Fleckenstein, Jr. Southern Decoys of Viriginia and Carolinas, p.183.

Lot Essay

"A goose decoy such as this is the very ultimate in Cobb decoys," states Henry Fleckenstein in Southern Decoys of Virginia and Carolinas

The most unusual feature of this decoy is that it was made to be used as both a stickup and a floating decoy. This feature allowed the user to either place the bird as a part of the floating "rig" or set it on the shoreline in concert with an adjacent floating rig to create a more heightened sense of realism. The exceptional bird is considered by knowledgeable collectors in the field as one of the finest, if not the finest, geese made by this noted early maker.

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