Templeton or Morris?

[templemorris]

Hi all,
We had this canoe provided to us as a museum did not have the space any longer to display it. The museum docs have had it displayed as a Templeton all of these years however someone with more knowledge locally has told us Templeton never made an 18 ft canoe and this is actually a Morris. Do the experts here share the same opinion? Does that put the date on the canoe around 1920? As the canoe is largely a fundraiser for us so we can run our heat this winter we are looking to sell it. Is $1k a fair price or is that way outside the ballpark on this model and manufacturer? Does it seem like this may have been restored at some point over the years already? Thanks.

 

[MGC]

You could make it easier for someone to ID your canoe by including an image of the stems and also the sheer. So, an inside shot under the decks and an outside shot showing the profile. Also, has that canoe been fiberglassed? If so, that greatly devalues it.
Off hand, nothing says Morris to me....but I am very consistently wrong with my identifications.

 

[Benson Gray]

This canoe does appear to have been covered with fiberglass. I don't know of anyone who is seeking a Templeton canoe so a $1000 price may be optimistic. The pictures below are from the Fans of the WCHA group on Facebook. My response there was that it can be very difficult to identify the original maker of an old canoe without a builder's tag, especially after some significant repairs. The list at https://wcha.org/catalogs/maine-list.htm has over 200 canoe builders in Maine and most of them can't be identified without a tag. Please post the answer here if you ever find out who built this one.

Benson

 

[MGC]

That helps Benson. Possibly a Morris that someone with a very heavy hand modified. 18 foot canoes are a bit harder to sell and especially if they have been glassed. I doubt that could fetch anywhere close to 1k. When I look at a modded and glassed canoe, I tend to limit my offers to 3 or 400 presuming it's a canoe worth fussing with.

 

[templemorris]

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize another member posted it on Facebook last week.

Unfortunately when I looked it all over there were no tags on it. I suppose it will be forever a mystery.

From the start, I thought it looked painted or something, especially for an old canoe but what do I know!