Biography - Vincent Giannetto, III

In 2004, Hunting & fishing Collectables Magazine called Vincent Giannetto, III, the custodian of the Delaware River gunning style decoy, writing:  “since the early 1970s he has been… defining (its) style, taking it to new levels of both form and function”.    It is praise that Giannetto never looked for but wears as easily as the title that carving and hunting for over five decades has earned him: the last of the legendary Delaware River Hunter-Carvers.

He earned this reputation as a teenager, falling in love with the river and mixing in with men that were back then thought of as simple river rats – men that made their living entirely from the river itself.  Vince admired these men and aspired to live their life-style, but forced to learn the craft completely on his own, it took him time learn the trade.  As a result, his work has taken on a look and feel that is uniquely his own, and has been called carving “born from a love of the outdoors, from respect and affection for game, and from a recognition that nature’s beauty is something worth preserving.”

Five decades later he is one of a dying breed, one of the last true hunter-carvers that make a living solely from the river and its craft.  His decoys and country collectables have traveled a long way from the banks of the Delaware.  He has become one of today’s most collectable carvers, winning ribbons at nearly every carving competition in the country  and been displayed in private collections, museums, the Christmas windows of Rockefeller Center, New York City, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. and our nation’s White House.  In 2005 his life story and over one-hundred of his decoys were displayed in a year-long exhibit at the Maryland Upper Bay Museum entitled: “Carving the Delaware River Tradition.”

As further recognition, in early-2010 Giannetto’s life story will be told in the upcoming novel, The Decoy Artist, The True Story of America’s Last Hunter-Carver, being released nationally by Pelican Publishers.  It will be the first major novel set along the Delaware River, using Giannetto’s life as a means to tell of the outdoorsmen who became legendary, the roots of decoy carving, the destruction of the region where these distinctive traditions were born and the loss of this uniquely American way of life.

Today Giannetto spends most of his time “out back” on his 60 acres of protected wetlands along the Delaware Bay, hunting, fishing, carving or simply enjoying the land.  He rarely competes these days, selling his decoys as he makes them and hunting over the ones he likes best.  But, if you scrape off the mud and look closely you’re likely to find the next best-of-show bird, and certainly one of tomorrow’s most collectable decoys.

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