A Decoy Corner Article
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
Pictured above: Jezwinski Bluebill pair courtesy of Nels Swenson collection
Julius J. Jezwinski, Decoy Carver From Berlin, WI
Berlin, WI, is about 20 miles southwest of Oshkosh and is located almost entirely in Green Lake County. The city was founded in 1845 and incorporated as a city in 1857. Berlin was known as the “Fur and leather” City due to its dependence on the abundance of wildlife and leather product production. The city is located on the Fox River, which flows east to Oshkosh and is connected to numerous lakes and marshes. Those wetlands and lakes were a waterfowl hotbed where scores of waterfowl stopped over on their fall migration. Where waterfowl was abundant, so were decoy carvers! Ron Koch documents no fewer than 9 well-known decoy carvers in Berlin, WI, in his book “Decoys of the Winnebago Lakes,” and most of them were neighbors!
This article is about Julius J. Jezwinski, who was born on June 7th, 1912. Julius was married to Mary Malecki in 1940, and together they had at least 3 children. Julius lived and worked in the Berlin area his entire life. He began carving in about 1940. He was an avid waterfowler who hunted Lake Poygan, less than 30 minutes from his home.
He began carving decoys to serve his own passion for waterfowling. His first rig was a rig of bluebills he used on Poygan. Julius was good friends with another carver, Stanley Ceman, who also lived in Berlin. The bodies for his first rig were sawed out by Stanley, and he used Stanley’s patterns, so his first decoys were very similar to Ceman’s! Later in Julius’s carving career, he carved many canvasbacks, mallards, and teal using his own patterns and developing his own carving style.
Jezwinski used old cedar telephone poles for his bodies and pine for his heads. His heads were attached to the body by a dowel extending from the bottom of the decoy into the head. He used glass eyes for all of his decoys. That fact proves he was quite proud of his decoys, as glass eyes were quite expensive then! Julius painted his puddler decoys quite elaborately, with speculum painting and some back feathers. His diver decoys used a simpler paint scheme with some color blending. His heads have good detail around the bill. His body style would be considered classic “Winnebago lakes” with a paddle tail and slightly elevated back. Julius branded most all of his decoys under the bill with “JJJ”.
Later in life Julius began to carve fewer decoys, and most of those were sold directly to collectors.
Julius Jezwinski passed away on November 17th, 1990, at the age of 78. He is buried in St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Berlin along with his wife, who passed in 2010.
Julius Jezwinski’s decoys are in high demand by Wisconsin collectors, but very few can be found on the secondary market. This writer is still looking for a classic Jezwinski for my personal collection. Maybe Someday!
Julius J. Jezwinski, another Wisconsin Original decoy carver from Berlin, WI.
