Another Old Town inventory discovery

[Benson Gray]

I will often go looking for one thing and then find something completely different. My recent investigation of the Old Town inventory records from 1917 to 1936 was no exception. The search was for any indication of when the different style of Old Town paddle decals were used as described at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/2955/ with some pictures. I didn't find one since most of the listings were similar to the one below from 1922.



The more interesting discovery was how frequently model canoes were mentioned as shown below. They had seven of the four foot long Carleton Sign canoes in stock on January 1st, 1918. The January 1st, 1917 inventory shows 17 Old Town sign canoes on one line and three more on the next line. My guess is that this indicated that 17 which were four feet long and three were eight feet.



Those would be interesting to find today.

Benson

 

[Dan Miller]

And apparently they had no value...

 

[Benson Gray]

And apparently they had no value...

Yes, which probably makes sense for something that was going to be given away when a dealer placed a large order. However, the earlier inventories did place a value on the models as described and shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/4641/ from some previous research.

Benson

 

[Roger Young]

Very interesting news Benson. It reinforces what we have known for a while now - - that the OT and Carleton (post 1910) build logs don't tell the whole story when it comes to production or numbers of display models (aka 'sign' canoes) that were built. Simply stated, the build logs did not always record what was made, certainly prior to the 1920's, and even after the 1930's.

Your quote ... "The more interesting discovery was how frequently model canoes were mentioned as shown
below. They had seven of the four foot long Carleton Sign canoes in stock on January 1st,
1918. The January 1st, 1917 inventory shows 17 Old Town sign canoes on one line and three
more on the next line. My guess is that this indicated that 17 that were four feet long and three
were eight feet."

My comments: ... (1) While searching the Carleton build logs, I could find a record of only 0ne 4' sample
being built prior to 1918 (i.e. in 1911), yet the inventory shows four on hand. Another good
reason not to rely totally on the shop build logs.

... (2) My search of the OT build logs did not find any records for 4' samples prior to 1922, yet
we know from other documented sources that 4' OT display samples were indeed made at
least as early as 1907, and possibly earlier. Thus, to find them in OT inventory records also
suggests the build logs are incomplete as regards actual items manufactured.

However, I'm not sure that we should conclude there were possibly 17 of the 4' length and 3
which were 8' long, because this was at a time when the build logs do indicate that OT was
also producing 'display' and 'sign' canoes in lengths of 10', 11' and 12', as well. And, there is
one known 'sign' canoe of 14'. So, assigning a length is somewhat problematic, alas!!

Still, interesting stuff!!

Cheers,
Roger