Interesting fragment from The Indian Canoe Co.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280510805401&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123

Sometimes less is more.

Robert P. Ross
Ross Bros.
PO Box 60277
Florence, MA 01062
413.320.2306

www.RossBros.com

Robert or others,
Explain to me why it went for so much? Are Indian Old Towns that rare?

Chris,

That might be a better question for Mr. Gray. I can say I haven't seen one in my 28 years in the industry. This might be the one and only time you might see one at this price too. I think at this price a few more are likely to surface.

Robert P. Ross
Ross Bros.
PO Box 60277
Florence, MA 01062
413.320.2306

Equally interesting is the deck... if this deck is typical of the Indian Old Town, it had a heart-shaped deck, not the one we associate with Old Town.

chris pearson said:

Explain to me why it went for so much? Are Indian Old Towns that rare?

Click to expand...

This went for more than I expected so I can't explain why. It is the only Indian Old Town canoe deck that I have ever seen. The Indian Old Town Canoe Company appears to have existed for a short time before 1902. The group that started it purchased the Middle Street factory in October of 1901 as shown at http://forums.wcha.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=10787&d=1274654935 before June of 1901. They joined with J. R. Robertson in January of 1902 and created the Robertson and Old Town Canoe Company which became the Old Town Canoe Company in 1903 after Robertson's departure.

Indian Old Town Canoe Company items have done well on eBay over the years and this sale will probably start to bring some more out as Robert mentioned. An eBay auction of an Indian Old Town Canoe Company catalog in 1999 went for over $500. It was the only one that I had ever seen outside of the two from the factory. Another one showed up on eBay within a few months and sold for about $300. It was owned by a trader in Bangor recently who will probably put it back on eBay once he learns about this deck sale.

I was able to personally inspect this deck last week and get a high resolution image of the name plate. The deck has some unusual characteristics. It is heart shaped as Kathy pointed out. The nails are iron and rusted like a Robertson. The top of the deck is arched or convex like many of the early Old Town models. The back side is rough sawn and it appears to have had a flag pole socket.

Does anyone know who won the auction? (The bidder selected rancidpork5000 as their eBay name.) Are there any other old style canoes around with heart shaped decks which are arched on top and rough sawn on the back which show evidence of a diamond shaped tag held down with two nails?

Benson

Benson ,
Sorry you didn't get the item.
Denis