Chestnut Hull Decals

[WoodNCanvas]

Just curious what anybody might know of the history of hull decals on Chestnut canoes. I was always under the impression that hull decals were a later addition to Chestnut canoes....mid 1960s to 1970s....but have had a discussion recently about hull decals on 1950 era Chestnuts. Mike Elliot of Kettle River Canoes wrote on his blog, Replacing Chestnut Wood-Canvas Canoe Decals (May 16, 2010), http://canoeguybc.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/replacing-chestnut-wood-canvas-canoe-decals/:

I’m not sure when Chestnut began putting hull decals on the sides of their canoes. I have catalogues from 1950 (a reprint by Roger MacGregor), 1970, 1973, 1976 and the last catalogue produced before they closed in 1978. The hull decals were not present on the canoes in the 1950 catalogue and they were present in 1970. I have worked on Chestnut canoes from the mid-1960’s that had the hull decals, but I don’t know the exact year they first appeared. If you have more information on this, please let me know.

So if anybody has more information, I'd like to know too....guess I've got an inquisitive mind LOL LOL.

 

[Dan Miller]

Chestnut "side decals" first appear in the 1956 catalog. However, it is not until 1961 that they appear in the catalog as they did in real life - prior to that, seems like it was a printer's concept... For example, the 1960 catalog shows the side decal as being the chestnut leaf logo, but I've never seen that on the side of an actual canoe.

 

[Giiwedin]

I bought two 17' Prospectors directly from Chestnut in March 1965. Both had side decals.

 

[WoodNCanvas]

Thanks for info so far....especially from Dan....and I was pretty sure there were hull decals in mid 60s so good to have that confirmed by Giiwedin as well.