Tradition. Knowledge. Enthusiasm.

COVID-19 CLUB UPDATE: 

THE LIBRARY IS CLOSED UNTIL APRIL 19, 2020

The next meeting is Wednesday May 13, 2020 at 7:15 pm the Brightwaters

Library located at 1 South Country Road, Brightwaters, New York 11718

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The Show & Tell is Brant, Ward Bothers and Louisiana -

Carver Presentation: George Munkert

If you do not have a bird of the month, please bring any decoy from your collection.

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Dear Friends and Members,

We hope that you and your loved ones remain safe during this difficult and trying time. Please listen to the advice of healthcare experts and practice social distancing. Remember to check in on those who are the most vulnerable and help them out as best you can. We are all in this together and we will come out of it together.

We have been in touch with the Bay Shore Brightwaters Library and they will remain closed until April 19. We are checking to see if they have any availability after that date so that we can have a meeting in May. But until then, our next meeting is scheduled for May 13, 2020.  However, that may change depending upon circumstances. So please continue to check our website for meeting updates. 

For the next meeting we will pick up the show and tell schedule where we left off. It will be Brant, Ward Bothers and Louisiana.  The carver presentation will be by George Munkert giving a talk on Amityville carver Jimmy Ketcham. 

Please continue to check back to our website for further updates on our next scheduled meeting and other events planned for Long Island Decoy Collectors Association.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 516.776.4721 or Vice President George Munkert at 516.457.1636 or Kate Sohm at 516.413.8476 or email her at K8sohm@aol.com.

Please everyone stay safe and healthy.

This too shall pass.

God bless America

Ben and Kate Sohm

Below are cancellations of events that were scheduled in the 

decoy collecting community and one still scheduled

The New Jersey Decoy Collectors Association show scheduled for April 4, 2020 has been canceled.

The East Coast Decoy Collectors Association buy, sell & swap scheduled for April 17 – 18, 2020 in Saint Michaels Maryland has been canceled. 

The Harve de Grace Decoy & Wildlife Art festival scheduled for May 2-3, 2020 has been canceled.

The Midwest Decoy Collectors Association scheduled for May 5 – 9, 2020 has been canceled.

Guyette & Deeter has elected not to hold their annual auction in Chicago, they and are working out details to execute the sale from Maryland. The auction dates have moved to May 8-9, 2020.

Visit their website deeter.com for more complete information. If you are interested in more details about specific lots, please contact Gary Guyette at 410-745-0485 or Jon Deeter at 440-610-1768.

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STILL Happeningas of 3.28.20

The Connecticut Decoy Showscheduled for Sunday, May 17, 2020 is still on. It will be held at the Army Navy Club 1090 Main St. Manchester CT Carvers and collectors. For more information contact Tom Reiley at Thomas.Reiley@gmail.com

LIDCA 49th Annual Show

 March 7, 2020  Show Details Below: 

Our Association

The Long Island Decoy Collectors Assoc. was formed to provide a venue in which people with a shared interest in the rich Long Island decoy tradition can come together to share their knowledge and enthusiasm, as well as to share the artistry, creativity and collections of its members. The association also provides an opportunity for members to exchange and purchase artifacts and materials by both new and established artists and craftsmen.

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President:    Ben Sohm

Vice President:   George Munkert

             Treasurer:   Bob Liehr

              Secretary:   Kate Sohm

Newsletter Editor:   Kate Sohm

   Show Chairman:   Ben Sohm

   Picnic Chairman:    George Munkert

Historian:    Mel Phaff

  Web Operations:  Anthony Babich 

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History

Back in the late 1960’s when “good ole duck and snipe stool” sold for less than $100.00 each, there were a number of long time decoy collectors on Long Island who generally only saw each other at an antique gun show or a water fowlers carving show. When we did get together there was much excitement and much pleasure, buying selling or swapping decoys. We were a small group, and the collecting field was wide open. Very little history was written and verbal historical information was traded between the collectors. At that time most of the collectors were duck shoots and collecting duck stool fitted in with their life style.

The first real attempt to organize them as a unit was in 1968 at the bay house of Capt. G.W.Combs, Sr., during the annual shoot out and clam bake held each fall on the marsh of Seaford. Among the collectors who were there that expressed a desire to have a decoy collectors society were G.W. Combs, Sr., G.W. Combs, Jr., Jack Combs, Ron Bauer, Ron McGrath, Frank Murphy and Bud Ward. During the next year they would meet at one

another’s house for a swap session.

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On September 21, 1970 the first organized meeting took place in West Islip. Called the “L.I. Antique Decoy Collectors Society”, it was headed by George Combs, Jr. and Bill Joeckel. At that meeting there were 27 collectors. The temporary Chairman was Malcolm Flemming, temporary Secretary and Treasurer was George W. Combs, Jr.

The L.I. Decoy Collectors Association was formed in Jan. 1971.

Officers for that year:

President                       George W. Combs, Jr.

V. President                   Bill Joeckel

Secretary                       Debbie Libaire

Treasurer                       Frank Murphy

Historical Society          Ron McGrath

Board of Governors        Malcolm Fleming, Frank Scrace, Bud Ward,  Gilbert Herzy

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The first Long Island Decoy Collectors Association display was held March 1971 at the National Decoy Show in Babylon. Our first Long Island Decoy Collectors Association show was held on Sept 25-26, 1971 and thus began a tradition of decoy collectors meets and shows that have inspired numerous future collectors and decoy collectors’ societies over the past years.

Our efforts back in 1968 made a passage for the country’s first, and one of the finest organizations of its kind. The Long Island Decoy Collectors Association and its members’ efforts in cooperation with numerous museums, writers, historians and other collectors through the past years have led to many great contributions in the field of decoy collecting.

Today decoy collectors come from all walks of life. Many books and decoy shows provide a wealth of information on the historical importance and identification of decoys from any region.

The Long Island Decoy Collectors Association meets once a month with a calendar of events, guest speakers, bird of the month (specie, maker, or region), decoys for sale or trade.

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Additional History of Long Island Decoy Collectors Association

by Ron McGrath

INTRODUCTION:

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The continuing success of our decoy club today is due in part to the efforts of numerous members throughout several decades. As a founding member and the first Club Historian, I offer this history of our club’s formation. The segment that follows is taken from my book on Long Island Decoys that will be published in the near future.

The decoy history of Long Island, NY, would not be complete without the story of the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association. Founded in 1970, the LIDCA is the second oldest decoy club in the U.S. (The Midwest Decoy Collectors Association is the oldest club, founded in 1966.) Over the years, LIDCA members have contributed information that led to the identification of many Long Island decoys and their makers.

The following is a brief history of events that led to the founding of the club.

            Beginning in 1959, Malcolm Fleming and I occasionally visited Robert “Rab” Staniford, Jr., Chuck Watson, and John Bielick to discuss and trade decoys. These trading sessions often took place at Rab’s Wildfowler Decoy Company located in Quogue, Long Island. At this time no one, to my knowledge, purchased decoys. Joel Barber’s book, Wild Fowl Decoys, led to many lively exchanges over early decoy identification. During one of our “meetings” that year (1959), Malcolm Fleming suggested that we contact other collectors and duck hunters for the purpose of forming a decoy club. Although several attempts were made to organize, time passed and it was more than a decade before Fleming’s idea was finally acted upon.

It was at the 1970 annual, late summer/early fall gathering of a group of Long Island duck hunters, fisherman, and decoy collectors that Fleming’s intention to form a club was finally acted upon. These annual events (gatherings, meetings), some years starting in August, were held at both the Combs and Ward-Bauer bay houses on Long Island’s South Shore. And so it happened in August of 1970 that the group which included Ron Bauer, the Combses (George Sr., Jack, and George, Jr.), Ron McGrath, Frank Murphy, and Bud Ward, agreed that within one week a meeting would be held in Bud Ward’s mainland home for the purpose of drafting an announcement of the club’s formation.

It turned out that Malcolm was unable to attend that mainland meeting; but I conveyed his suggestions to the group that assembled at Bud Ward’s home. The results of that meeting were mailed to potential members, inviting them to help form the Long Island Antique Decoy Collectors Society on September 21, 1970. Twenty-seven people attended the first formative meeting chaired by George Combs, Jr. and Bill Joeckel held at the Pine Lake Improvement Club in West Islip. During that September meeting a committee was formed for the purpose of drafting the club rules. This committee referred many times to the existing by-laws of the Pattersquash Gunner’s Association of Bellport, Long Island.

At that time Malcolm Fleming agreed to be Temporary Chairman, and he held that position until the Nov. 1970 club elections. By October, the club name had been revised to read, “Long Island Decoy Collectors Association.” By Jan. 1971, the Club By-Laws had been approved, officers elected, and the club had been successfully launched.

The initial slate of officers elected was: President: George Combs, Jr., Vice President: Bill Joeckel, Secretary: Debbie Libaire, Treasurer: Frank Murphy, Club Historian: Ron McGrath. Board of Governors: Malcolm Fleming, Gil Herzy, Frank Surace and Bud Ward.

Future monthly meetings were held for years in the Old Heildberg Inn located in the town of Brightwaters. Bill Joeckel and George Combs, Jr. procured both meeting sites.

Ron McGrath

Trappe, MD (2009)

Sagtikos Manor Historical Society Presents:

A Decoy Presentation By LIDCA Members

Dick Richardson & Tim Seiger 

Date: Wednesday, June 20th 2018

Location: West Islip Public Library