April 11, 2016

Collectors Corner ›   Events ›  


Annual Midwest Decoy Show- April 18th - 23rd, 2016

The annual show is just around the corner, come see us for a large selection of decoys as well as other hunting and fishing collectibles.  Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois, we're in a different room this year.  We'll be in room 3206 Monday thru Thursday with our door open ready to buy, sell, trade, and give free appraisals.  Friday and Saturday we'll be set up in the Mega Center.  Hope to see you there. Click on this link for the show agenda: agenda  

Show review - 2015

We'd like to thank all the vendors, and especially everybody that took the time to come out to the show in Utica this year.  It was good to see everybody, and nice to see several new vendors this year to join in the fun.  We're already starting to make plans for next years event, more and likely going to be the same place and same time of year since it worked out well this year.  In closing, just want to share a story that we will both remember for quite some time.  A young man came in to the show with his father this year and walked around looking at all the decoys for quite some time.  After the 2nd or 3rd visit to our table, and after continually looking at the Illinois River Style decoys, he came back to our table.  Dad looked at him and said, "you keep coming back to this table, well-- what are you going to do?".  We asked him if he had any decoys, and he said yes, he has 16 decoys in his own collection.  Dad told us he's been saving up for the show and was looking for a special decoy he wanted to add to his collection.  When it was all said and done, this nice young man walked out of the show with his first Perdew.  Thanks so much, Cody Anderson, for making our show.  It is so nice to see a young man like yourself with a passion already for this hobby. .dave
October 16, 2012

Collectors Corner ›  


Collecting Illinois River Decoys

I have a couple friends that recently developed an interest in collecting duck decoys.  They asked me what I look for in an Illinois River bird.  Well, here goes... My particular likes are fairly simple, for me older is better.  One of my favorite decoys is an old Elliston Mallard Hen I bought from the Joe French Collection.  It isn't a great decoy, but its age, original paint, and of course the weight with Elliston stamped on it is a great combo. I prefer original paint, but don't mind "old" hunter repaints.  The paint job on most Illinois River decoys are very life-like, even in today's decoy world. The big name carvers are always nice to look at but some names don't get enough attention.  Mario Pioletti from Spring Valley seems to fly under the radar in a lot of decoy circles.  Another interesting name is Julio Busto from Depue who made some very nice birds with good paint jobs.  After talking with these young fellas for a while, they came to the same conclusion:  Just find one you like and buy it! I will end this post with a list of ten carvers, in no particular order, I like that don't get noticed as much as the big names but are keeper decoys.
  • Mario Pioletti - Very good paint on his birds.
  • Julio Busto - Nice curves, few decoys made.
  • Fred Destri - Excellent feather painting.
  • William Zarnicki - Nice carvings, birds are a little oversized.
  • Coleman Bassett - Great Illinois River characteristics.
  • Chiado decoys - Many to choose from, hunting birds.
  • Fred Coleman - Very nice miniatures.
  • Koehler decoys - Made by several family members, stamped weights.
  • Bill Williams - Older birds, tough to find.
  • Goose Podowicz - Earlier birds, although hard to find, are very nicely crafted.
Top