A Decoy Corner Article
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
Van Dyne, Wisconsin is a small village located in the Town of Friendship in Fond du Lac county. Some may call it an “intersection” village, located several miles north of the City of Fond du Lac and a stone’s throw west of Lake Winnebago. Van Dyne is close to several prime waterfowling areas at Eldorado marsh, Rush Lake and the Winnebago chain. This small village is also the hometown of the Bergman Brothers, Arthur and Orville.
Art “Bud” Bergman was born in 1914 and his brother, Orville, was born two years earlier. They both lived their whole life in Van Dyne. Art was an avid waterfowler, hunting the area’s duck hot beds. He began carving decoys in the 1930’s for his own use and became quite proficient carving anything in wood. This led him to teach decoy carving at the local technical school in Fond du Lac for some time.
Art carved most species of waterfowl, but was best known for his bluebills and coot, which migrated to Lake Winnebago in large numbers each fall. Early in his carving career, he sold many hand-carved decoys to area hunters. After his retirement from the technical school, Art built a duplicating lathe at his small shop in Van Dyne to speed up his decoy production. He turned out bodies and heads in less time and finished them with knives, draw shaves, rasps and sandpaper. Art turned out thousands of decoys, many of which he sold unpainted to supply needs of local waterfowlers. Art painted some of his decoys and others were shipped out and painted by area artists. One painter in the state of Maine in particular was George Soule’s daughter (see the L.L. Bean Decoy Corner article for more info.), who was a well known decoy artist. It is remarkable that a local carver from small-town Wisconsin had connections with a highly noted East Coast artist in the 1930-40’s without benefit of websites, social media, computers or sometimes even phones!
Many feel that Art’s decoys closely resembled Mason Decoys, which were also produced from duplicating lathes popular in 1920-1930.
Art’s decoys had smooth bodies and little to no feather carving. He provided some detail in the heads, depicting the head/bill separation and nostrils. Most were provided with glass eyes and were simply painted to represent the species. Art’s brother Orville “Orv” also carved decoys for his own use, however, after Art passed away in 1985, Orville took over the duplicating lathe until his death in 2005, carrying on the Bergman decoy tradition.
Needless to say, there are many Bergman decoys still being used and many more stored away in boathouses, garages and basements waiting to be found by collectors. Unfortunately, most Bergman decoys have little or no identification marking or signage. Skilled collectors are able to identify Bergman decoys from Mason’s and there are several online resources to help.
Art Bergman was a talented Wisconsin decoy carver, teacher, entrepreneur and waterfowler who left his mark on the decoy market in Winnebago-land. A classic decoy that is a prize on anyone’s mantel!
