Displaying on many mantels across the U.S. are the iconic wooden duck decoys carved by Steve and Lem Ward. Many fetch a high price, and rightfully so. The Wards had a lasting impact on waterfowling. (Photo credit: Page Sands.)
January 13, 2025
By Shawn Swearingen
During a time when handmade decoys worked, before they adorned the mantel above the fireplace and were held as the quintessential American folk art, the Ward Brothers of Lem and Steve, and their craft rose above their contemporaries.
Their hometown of Crisfield, Maryland lies at the marshy middle edge of the Eastern Shore. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and carvers developed their own unique style of decoys for their area. The style made by Lem and Steve reflected the way they hunted in this middle part of the Bay, a flat-bottom decoy with realistic heads, compared to the round bottom decoys of the equally influential Madison Mitchell in the upper Bay.
The long history of brothers Lem and Steve Ward in the waterfowling world has been well documented, even by the National Geographic . The importance of their contributions to the culture of carving and woodworking, especially along their home waters of Maryland, is preserved by the Ward Foundation as well.
The decoy endeavor started for them around 1920. Neither Lem nor Steve were trained as artists, yet their observations of waterfowl heavily influenced their works. Decoys from those immediate decades were used as a tool for hunters to put meat on the table for families. The increase in waterfowling for sport as economics improved led to an increase in hunting clubs looking to fill orders. The availability of material from cedar to balsa wood post World War II impacted the decoys being made. Then, as plastic became more affordable options as decoys for hunters, the brothers adapted by making more intricate and decorative decoys. Their works are prized by collectors across the world. As an example, four unpainted-unfinished decoy heads on a display sold for over $500 recently at auction house Guyette & Deeter. Not bad for two brothers that started out as barbers! There is more than just the facts, figures, and the different eras of their carvings and paint work, though. The weight of their hand carved decoys carries through into today with modern carvers and those that still choose to gun over blocks.
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A pair of canvasbacks carved by the Ward Bros. Lem and Steve's canvasbacks are some of the most sought after decoys in today's world of collecting. (Photo credit: Page Sands) What does that weight mean for carvers like Luke Costilow or Ian McNair? For Ian, “Growing up on the Eastern Shore, the title ‘decoy carver’ as a profession is not an exotic term. I grew up in a workshop full of woodchips and the smell of cedar and oil paint. To me this was far more normal than the halls of an elementary school or exotic things like air conditioning. To carve my first rig of gunning decoys as a teenager seemed like a rite of passage; it felt completely natural that I should make my own decoys to hunt over them.”
Costilow says, “Looking back at the Ward Brothers, they were innovators. My dad carved and my grandfather carved. Like them, there was a time when that’s how my dad paid the bills through carving and taxidermy. It’s what they and my Dad did, and what I’m doing in my shop today to pay the bills, is the same as what the Ward brothers did. The tools have changed but the passion is the same.
"Just as there are working decoy carvers today, there are those of us that even continue to hunt over these handmade working decoys. Collector, dog trainer, and waterfowl biologist Jeff Pelayo will deploy his decoy rig for the season until lake water freezes over too much to hunt. “The brothers were so influential to so many of today’s decoy makers. The wooden decoys made by today's contemporary decoy carvers are absolutely beautiful and some very well made to be gunned over. The decoys I hunt over, like those made by talented friends Pat Gregory and Tom Modin, ride the water all season here on the farm in North Dakota. Some are going on their ninth season!
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One of the final pairs of decoys carved by the Wards in 1968. (Photo credit: Page Sands.) “Wooden decoys ride more true to the natural form of a duck than plastic decoys without question,” states Jeff. “On the slower duck days I enjoy looking over my rig of 60 to 80 diving duck decoys with a spattering of puddle ducks and swans riding the water and I believe my dogs do too! It's my small way of paying tribute to those wildfowlers before us. Someday, I hope that my decoys and duck guns that I leave behind find the hands of those that appreciate tradition.”
In speaking with Luke, you also hear tributes to wildfowlers gone by. “Back then, you had to go find someone like Lem and Steve to have decoys in order to hunt. Today, people buy these hand carved decoys to have a connection to history, like a functional piece of art. But you don’t need these in order to hunt. While my ‘style’ is heavily influenced by my Dad and the Lake Erie type decoys, there is a theme that does carry over from them for me: correct anatomy with a mix of functionality. It is such a great form of American art.”
As a testimony to their lasting impact on the waterfowling community and as American folk art, the annual Ward World Championship, the largest bird carving competition, will be celebrating its 54th year in 2025.
For Ian and others, that lasting impact shows on the carving bench. “Growing up in my father’s shop, he was clearly my greatest influence. Of course he took inspiration from countless carvers and other artists across diverse genres and art forms. This gave me something of a blank slate to draw from multiple influences over the years, while working to develop my own style. I think that you can see that the Wards influenced my father’s style, which he distilled into his own, and that has transferred down to me. And of course their works have influenced me directly as well as you can see in my work.
“A great decoy does not need to be overly intricate, it needs to distill the most important elements of form, color, balance and ultimately capture the essence of a duck on the water. The Wards did that in a way that captures the spirit of the bird through their keen understanding and knowledge first hand with ducks. When my Father and I taught a carving class back in the spring, we carved a pintail. We didn’t exactly copy a Ward pintail, but their simple yet effective form and paint was the leading influence of the design that we created.”
The history of the Ward Brothers' decoys has an impact on many carvers and collectors today. (Photo credit: Page Sands.) Author’s Postscript: There is a sentimentality to our traditions as waterfowlers that grows over the length of time that we are involved in the pursuit of waterfowl. The corresponding photos were taken by a family friend Page Sands, whose father had a relationship with the Ward brothers. Through the years his father collected various decoys of standard and miniature sizes, paintings by Lem, and even some of the final decoys from Steve. These pieces of American folk art have passed from his father to Page and his family. As Jeff Pelayo mentioned, there is hope that other waterfowlers of the next generation appreciate the natural artistic talent of today’s decoy carvers and those that paved the way like Lem and Steve Ward.