Mallard is an emperor's duck blind. The designer's conception of the room was a Vermont marsh just before sunrise in November. Indeed, the curved, painted ceiling seems a dawning blue sky, and a wooden Canada Goose suspended from the ceiling moves with the direction of the wind. Antique decoys and guns, a king-size hand carved bed, camouflage pillows and a view of the garden make the Mallard Room a duck hunter's paradise.

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When Dave Sellers, the lead architect and ultimately the inspiration behind the creation of the Inn, asked me if I wanted to "do" a room here, he explained that it should have some kind of a theme that could be associated with Vermont or some aspect of its history. Since I am interested in this pursuit, I decided that the traditions of water fowling both on Lake Champlain and Vermont's inland waters would make an interesting backdrop for a guestroom.

The Room
The original concept had the light slowly rising over the horizon as the sounds of the marsh became louder and louder and more ducks and geese could be heard until the loud bang of a gun brought whatever you were having for dinner landing on the bed in its raw form. At this point, an enormous wet Black Lab would bound into the room and lick you awake. Alas, it became necessary to trim back on this a bit, but I have tried to gather up some of the stuff that makes up the experience and its traditions. There is, however, no way to capture the incredible feeling of the marsh just before sunrise sometimes in November. The sounds, light, smells, moist air, and the unbelievable feeling of excitement just can not be duplicated in a room of any kind.

The Decoys
Decoys are everywhere these days and most of the decorative ones we ran across miss the simple beauty of those that were used by hunters from the Civil War to the 1960's. In a few moves, and with minimum of paint, these craftsmen were able to capture the essence of the bird. So good were these carvers that they got their reputation from fooling the real things! Highly detailed carvings had no place in this workplace and the ones that are most sought after tend to be the simplest. Obtaining decoys that are exclusively from the Lake Champlain area was a challenge that I was not entirely up for though there are some examples here. If you are interested, there is a copy of "Decoys of Lake Champlain" here in the room and I did manage to find local birds where I could. I have tried to use working blocks for the most part and most of the ones I have here have seen their time on the water. There are, however, a couple of decorative birds here, a Canvasback Drake and a Merganser Drake both by Gary Starr. Gary did the Canada goose that forms part of the room's unique wind vane and is also responsible for the ducks on the bedposts. Of the most well-known decoy carvers of Vermont today, Gary's simple graceful interpretations are, in my opinion, some of the best. There is a short description of his work here and you get it directly through him by dropping in at the Bradley House across the street of the Inn.

The pair of Bluebills at the left of the bed are from Ontario and were likely hunted on the St. Lawrence. The white band has faded but can just be seen on the Drake (the Drake is the black one and the hen brown). These are very likely Paul Coombs ducks. I wanted to get some multiples since lots of similar birds usually make up a decoy spread. The Red- Head Drake on the immediate right, circa 1940, is by Gerald Trombley of Alberg Springs, VT (see pp. 119-124 in the book) who sold his carvings to, among other places, Saks in New York. The big brant on the floor is, as you can see, a cork decoy popular even today, as they seem to sit better on the water than the omnipresent plastic ones. This is a Long Island bird and probably dates from around 1940. I picked the little painted bluebill (scaup) to the right because I liked it and it's easy to see the carving on the back. Along with the pair of like birds mentioned above, this carving identified the decoys as being Canadian in origin. The Coot by the entrance, probably late 19th to early 20th century, I chose because this is the level of primitive representation that best typifies the carver's art. The Black Duck cork decoy by the window, though not necessarily my idea of a beautiful bird, was done by Raymond Poquette also of Alburg, VT (pp.101-102) who was a State representative. The pair of Bluebills in the hall are hollow and were likely added when they were found not to sit well in the water. These are just classic handmade decoys that, along with the painted bird around the corner in the room, thoroughly depict the most humorous quality some of these carvings have. In all, there's a pretty good representation here except for the real beauties that are just out of reach. Some exquisite old decoys are selling for as much as $50,000.

The Guns
I tried to select some representative water fowling pieces to put on display here and the choice was tough. From left to right: The pump is a Marlin Model 43. I liked the wear, spool-like for end design, and particularly the stock wood on this gun. Pumps of this vintage are the ones you see in the black and white photos of the glory days usually with great strings of trophies and cool looking men and dogs. The side-by-side is a classic Lefever Nitro Special. Used heavily in the blind and uplands, I couldn't resist. Real sportsman, some argue, wouldn't use anything but such double. More than two shots aren't deserved. Many of these beautiful old side-by-sides are being replaced with over and under nowadays. I tried to get a "humpback" Browning for the auto loader but went to the Remmington Sportsman because the Auto 5 owners are all still using theirs to hunt ducks or handing them down to their grandchildren. All these are 12 gauge shotguns and predate the new popular use of the "ski cannon 10s."

The Art
There are a few pieces worth mentioning here. The big painting is a copy of Winslow Homer's "Right and Left," classic sporting art, done in 1909 and hanging in the National Gallery. At first the painting, as the story goes, had no title but it got one when it was hung at the Knoedler gallery. From "Winslow Homer" by Cikovsky and Kelly quoting from Downes, Homer's first biographer, "A sportsman came in, caught a glimpse of the picture, and at once cried out: 'Right and left!' - admiring not so much the picture, per se, as the skill of the hunter who could bring down a bird with each barrel of this double-barreled shotgun in quick succession. So the work was christened." Getting this copied was a real lesson for me, the upshot being - now I know why Homer is Homer.

The A.B. Frost hand-colored chromolithograph, "Shooting Ducks From a Blind", is what I consider quintessential sporting art. Frost did a series of 12 shooting pictures published in 1895 of which this is the only one. If you look through the DU vintage edition, you can see "Ducks From a Battery" as well. One can almost smell the cigar smoke in the duck club lodge room when you look at the patina of this work.

"The Hunter's Joy" is a reprint of an old English sporting print. A British artist and illustrator of landscapes and animals, Charles Whymper was born in London in 1853 and spent the whole of his working life illustrating books on travel, natural history and sport. You can get a smidgen of the excitement in this scene.

The room would not be complete without a duck stamp and print. I've chosen the Vermont 1992 issue because it shows the snow geese, Vermont's most successful wildlife management program. If you are here in late October or November and are interested in bird life, you should go to the Addison County Goose Preserve to take in the spectacle of the fall migration. Tens of thousands of these magnificent birds in huge flocks stop at this hunter-financed safe haven on their way south and can be watched from the road. It's worth the trip and the innkeepers will have directions.