Owd. I had the ward brothers repainted a pair of their decoys and sign 14 others I found at the land fill. Many years ago. Steve charged me 40 dollars to repainted the pair. They signed all the rest for free. Nice guys. They even told me that my decoys, all but one of them, had been made in 1936-1937 time frame. Showed me how the tail was different on them. Don't know why they changed the style but they returned to the original style in late 1937.
I used the small spread every year for two decades just one hunt a year. Use to handle them like glass decoys. Took a well known collector of Ward decoys hunting over them. When he saw them in good light he just about came unglued. Tried to buy them for the next few hours. Always figured working decoys ought to be used like they were intended. So if I had a mason decoy and could have it repainted by the factory I might be tempted at least.
