Mark McNair Miniature Mallard

Mark S. McNair (b. 1950) Craddockville, VA, c. 2015 5 1/2 in. long

“There was a lovely piece of old white pine on the workbench salvaged from a window frame. Tight grain like the pages of a book, and colored with age as though tea stained. I found it too special to discard. "I was still basking in the satisfaction of having just completed a rather fine mallard drake decoy, my eye fell upon a choice little piece of very old white pine. It was much too fine to toss, and just like that I thought, 'Wouldn’t that make a perfect mini companion to this nice drake?’ I’ll scale it to the wood’s grain, match the paint, glass eyes, nail pattern, rigging, et al. As perfect a little copy as possible, imagining I had a Buck Rogers shrinking ray gun. We had two little children then which created a playful mood in the shop. I’m sure this had a lot to do with it. This would be fun, and so it was.” — Mark McNair discussing his impetus behind creating miniature carvings in Modest Town, Virginia, in the early 1980s.

A miniature mallard decoy with rigging, signed by the maker with an incised "McNair" on the underside. Original paint with minimal wear.