John Dilley - Artist Info

About John Dilley

  • Biography

    John Dilley

    Strangely, two of Long Island's most celebrated carvers, Bill Bowman and John Dilley, have escaped researchers' efforts to elaborate on their lives.

    The first written record of the shorebirds now credited to Dilley appeared in Bill Mackey's 1965 "American Bird Decoys". He related that he had acquired a small rig of very finely painted shorebirds from the widow of Jess Birdsall of Barnegat Bay, NJ. With all innocence, he credited Birdsall with their creation. Fairly quickly, however, due to the quality of the painted plumage, speculation centered around the possibility of Elmer Crowell from Cape Cod as the maker.

    Within a brief period of time, and with additional collectors entering the search, Mackey ...

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