An Inscribed Copy of Joel Barber's "Groundbreaking" Wild Fowl Decoys

Joel Barber. WILD FOWL DECOYS. New York: Windward House, 1934. Regular trade edition. Inscribed by Barber on the first free endpaper: "To J. Stuart Groves / Joel Barber." Hardcover. Original red cloth-covered boards decorated and lettered in gilt. Small 4to; xix, [3], 155, [1]pp. Illustrated with full-page color and b&w plates.

10 1/4 x 7 3/4 in.

From the Collection of a Gentleman Greensboro, North Carolina

With bookplate of John Stuart Groves on front paste-down.

The Shelburne Museum in Vermont (known for its notable decoy collection that was first established in the 1950s through Barber's gift of hundreds of decoys) calls this a "groundbreaking book" and "the first to identify the importance of decoys as a uniquely American art form" (https://shelburnemuseum.org/collection/decoys/).

Boards with mild edge wear, very subtle staining and scuffing, and spine toned and slightly faded with wear to ends and separation from text block at head; interior with toning, light offsetting, typical light handling wear, scattered spotting, paper residue on front paste-down, and one area with light cracking at gutter; lacking dust jacket. A good to very good copy.