About This Stamp
This block of four 22-cent stamps depicting four duck decoys was issued March 22, 1985, in Shelburne, Vermont. The stamps were available nationwide on March 23. The Duck Decoys stamps were issued in the American Folk Art series, which already included the block of four Quilts stamps issued in 1978 and the block of four Pennsylvania Toleware stamps issued in 1979.
The Duck Decoys stamps were designed by nationally known artist and veteran U.S. stamp designer Stevan Dohanos of Westport, Connecticut, formerly chairman of and a design coordinator with the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee.
The designs of the stamps were unveiled on May 17, 1984, in conjunction with the opening of the Hall of Stamps at U.S. Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The stamp designs were based on four actual decoys. The broadbill decoy was carved by Ben Holmes of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1890. The mallard decoy was carved by Percy Grant of Osbornsville, New Jersey, in 1900, and was part of the collection of the Shelburne Museum, as was the canvasback decoy. Bob McGraw of Havre De Grace, Maryland, carved the canvasback decoy in 1929. The redhead decoy was carved in 1925 by Keyes Chadwick of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Typographer and art director was Bradbury Thompson; modeler was Richard C. Sennett of the American Bank Note Company. The gravure process was used. The stamps were issued in panes of 50.