Handmade pair of merganser decoys

Description

This pair of red breasted merganser decoys were gotten from a fellow named Ted Anderston from New Castle, Maine.  I bought these decoys from Mr. Anderson in 1985 and found them in an old dumpy shed behind his dumpy house.  He made these in 1964 and I got him to paint them for me after I found them in 1985.   I bought 6 of them from him and these are large, oversized birds.  The drake measures 19" long; 8" wide; and the body is 8" high.  The hen is 19" long from tip of bill to tip of tail; 6 3/4" wide; body is 3 1/2" high.  These decoys were actually made by Mr. Anderson for hunting mergansers.  In his earlier years he did a lot of sea duck shooting and duck hunting along the coast of Maine.  I bought these decoys from him to use for hunting mergansers on Lake Michigan.  These are actual hunting decoys and I have used them for duck hunting and they have a few dings and scrapes here and there.  Generally in very good condition.  Structurally very sound and nice looking.  The drake has a turned head.  I  bought 6 and have sold a pair on e-bay and am keeping one pair for myself and now have this pair up for sale.  These decoys are all hand made our of cedar and hand painted.  They look great on the water.  Carver was a real character and he lived in an old shack and he called himself a "maniac", which he pretty much was.  A nice pair of true merganser hunting decoys.  He carved his name on the bottom of each decoy along with 'New Castle, ME' and the year '1964' when he made them.  I'll pay the postage to the lower 48 states only.  No returns.