Roger Young
display sample collector
Unfortunately, it seems the time has come to post warnings about the renewed prevalence of faked up Chinese replica toy canoes being used as a 'base' for phony creations of supposedly authentic, early American canoe factory display pieces, also called salesman's samples. This has been on-going over the past 25 years or so, but the recent stratospheric auction prices ($60K to $123K) for Old Town and other company samples, seems to have brought out renewed highly bogus offerings on eBay and liveauctioneers. One outfit, "Antique Arena Inc"., of Brooklyn, NY, has even offered 4 or 5 such scurrilous items in the past several months. Almost seems like they must have a direct pipeline to the scammer. Presently, they are selling a highly faked version of a "Chestnut" canoe model, using a 27-1/2 inch long imported Chinese toy as a base (last time around, it was a phony "Old Town" sample). A recent and very plain Chinese toy has been distressed and 'antiqued' to look old and given a false, misleading brand name. They now claim this ersatz piece is ca. 1910. It's no more than 25 years old, and faked up to have an aged look. Real Chestnut samples are 85" long, and only 7 are currently known to exist. A report has been filed.
A second highly faked item is currently offered on eBay, item # 267737894071, being sold out of "allenpeach" gallery in St. George, ME. This time it's the same 27-1/2" long recently imported Chinese toy claiming to be a 1920 Kennebec Canoe Co. sales prototype. Same distressed and 'antiqued' toy dressed up with a fraudulently applied, poorly copied trade name. The gallery owner has been advised, told in detail why his offering is a fake, and shown the real thing. His response is that he has 50 years experience in the antique world, is an expert, and has thoroughly examined his item; he remains un-swayed by anything offered to convince him otherwise, and is completely unwilling to concede it could be a fake, which it most definitely is!!! His sale continues. Scam warnings have been posted on FaceBook.
Photos attached of the offending items.
A second highly faked item is currently offered on eBay, item # 267737894071, being sold out of "allenpeach" gallery in St. George, ME. This time it's the same 27-1/2" long recently imported Chinese toy claiming to be a 1920 Kennebec Canoe Co. sales prototype. Same distressed and 'antiqued' toy dressed up with a fraudulently applied, poorly copied trade name. The gallery owner has been advised, told in detail why his offering is a fake, and shown the real thing. His response is that he has 50 years experience in the antique world, is an expert, and has thoroughly examined his item; he remains un-swayed by anything offered to convince him otherwise, and is completely unwilling to concede it could be a fake, which it most definitely is!!! His sale continues. Scam warnings have been posted on FaceBook.
Photos attached of the offending items.
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