Rare And Early 1990’s Ralph Hocker Jr. Cadillac Style Trout Fish Spearing Decoy.
Item History & Price
This is the last of 6 early fish in his personal collection that he has to sell. He tells me this fish is earlier than the fingerlings recently sold or currently listed. Early 1990’s. All are from out of a shoebox on a shelf in Ralph’s carving space. You are buying new-old stock. When I first met Ralph I was curious as to how a central PA carver got to carving working fish decoys. He was already carving fish and I suspect it was one of his vendors that encouraged him to carve... decoys. He came to discover and appreciate the work of Oscar Peterson and was influenced by him in his early work. This folky Cadillac style trout measures 5 1/4” long by 1 3/8” high from belly to top of the dorsal. It is 2 1/8” wide at the front fins and weighs 3.89 oz. As with all of his decoys, the front and dorsal fins extend into the lead cavity and are secured by the lead. Ralph carves his mouths, gills, tails and eyes and uses brass for his fins. All of his work is hand painted. Ralph sometimes ages his fish and will provide texture by having small pieces of sawdust in his paint. You can see some of this in the closer shots taken also to show the paint loss described below. It is stamped with Ralph’s mark on the side between the rear fin and tail with Ralph’s initials RHJ. Mostly original condition there is some wear and loss of paint on the perimeters of the fins. Please see pics for details and condition. Ask questions if I missed anything. Good luck.I have included a recent picture of the carver and some of his work after. The fish in his hand is one of three in process fish that he carved years ago. He has committed to finishing these for sale this winter. The photos after are from his photo album and the fish are long gone, unfortunately. I keep watching for them to pop up. Ralph began carving in 1985 with fish decoys coming a few years later. His early work was more abstract in carve and paint. He carved a number of pieces in the Cadillac style and added more realist pieces later. All Very cool pieces, all hard to find and very collectable. Ralph first stated that he’s only carved about100 fish decoys in those 25 years. Upon reflection, he said it may be more, I suggested 200 but he’s sure it’s much closer to 100. He sold most to two local vendors, Leon “Bart the Reel Man” Bartosic and Earl Wehler who sold them in their travels. I bought two trout from Earl, now residing in Florida.Ralph is now78 and carves more Santas than fish decoys. He said he actually got “carved out” years ago and took up painting on canvas. He developed a large following in this and sells his work through “The Pure Gallery” in Mechanicsburg, PA. After getting “painted out” he returned to carving, mostly Santas. Ralph does not compete and does not like to have to carve a quota for vendors to sell. He just loves to carve. I’m nudging him for more decoys and he’s committed to put some out. Stay tuned!
