Library of Congress Bicentennial Celebration Presentation - Page 17
and canvas Blackduck decoy from Marshfield, Mass. One of a kind, it is illustrated in
"The Art of the Decoy," by Adele Earnest.
In 1982, a group of senior P.F.D.A. collectors, inspired by the success of the largest annual gathering of notable collectors in the nation, the National Antique Decoy Show, at Oakbrook, Illinois, organized a new club with similar aims in mind. The new West Coast Decoy Collectors Association held its first gathering of collectors at the massive beach front Holiday Inn Monterey, where, among trades, deals, and other collectors' business they distributed official titles among leaders and followers. By gentlemen's' agreement, however, nothing changed the fact that the real leaders and innovators would be Jim Keegan, of Santa Rosa, former president and show chairman of the P.F.D.A. during the 70's; Jerry Rosenthal, of Los Gatos, already an honorary western representative among the Oakbrook directors, and Hugh Chatham, of San Rafael, whose family operated Holiday Inn Monterey.
In this exclusive location overlooking the bay, the West Coast Decoy Collectors Association held successful collectors meets until high tide was reached in 1986, when the R. Bourne Co. accepted an invitation to come west from Hyannis, and hold the first of three major auctions at this site. But after a high tide, stay alert for the shoals. The hotel changed ownership, and the W.C.D.C.A. returned up country to Santa Rosa where more troubles awaited. The outclassed old El Rancho Tropicana, home to the old P.F.D.A. and the new W.C.D.C.A., was demolished and the collectors found themselves once more cast into the wilderness. Their vicissitudes had only started.