John Tax Tucked-head and Sentinel Geese

John Tax (1894-1967) Osakis, MN, c. 1917 One would be hard pressed to find two Canada goose decoys that interact so well together as a pair. The birds are in perfect contrast to one another, with one in a sleeping tucked head pose and the other carved as a sentinel in a high state of alertness. The tucked head decoy features fine bill carving, and Tax purposely left off the eyes to simulate a sleeping bird. This fat hollow laminated carving measures a full 21 inches from bill tip to tail and 7 inches in width. The sentinel decoy is also hollow and was made with a removable head that features detailed bill carving and glass eyes. Made using six 3/4 inch laminated disks to extend the neck, Lindgren sites this bird as the “tallest of the sentinel Canada geese” in Last of the Prairie Carver’s. Laminated in twelve sections, the body measures 6 inces across and measures 30 inches from bill tip to tail.

These geese are in mostly original paint with possibly some very early working touch up by the maker. They both have even gunning wear. The sentinel has a neck crack and some slight paint loss along the lamination seams. The tucked-head goose has some wood loss at shoulder lamination seam on one side.

Provenance: John Lindgren Collection Julie Hall Collection

Literature: Gene and Linda Kangas, Decoys: A North American Survey, Spanish Fork, UT, 1983, plate 483, 484, pp. 302-303. Alan Haid, Decoys of the Mississippi Flyway, Exton, PA, 1981, p. 66. John Lindgren and Cliff Traff, The Last of the Prairie Carvers: Decoys by John Tax, 1970, plate 40, 41, and 46 exact birds illustrated.

Provenance

John Lindgren Collection Julie Hall Collection