‘No one has ever bothered about decoys as I have,’ wrote American Joel Barber in his 1934 book, Wild Fowl Decoys. For Barber, bird decoys weren’t just functional hunters’ tools, they were ‘floating sculptures’. Barber made it his life’s mission to transform the American public’s perception of decoys: he promoted their artistic and cultural merits on radio and television programmes, at specialist decoy events and exhibitions, and in books and magazine articles. In the United States, Barber is credited with almost singlehandedly elevating decoy ducks to the realm of folk art.
It wasn’t always this way. British dealer Barney James, who sells bird decoys at The Home Bothy, explains that for centuries decoys were entirely
