Outstanding Salesmans Sample Canoe
Old Town Canoe Company (1903-present)
Old Town, ME c. 1925
48 in. long

The Old Town Canoe Company of Old Town, Maine, is a historic maker of canvas-covered wooden canoes. Incorporated in 1901, Old Town is the largest and most well-known American canoe maker and they are still in busi-ness today. The individual build records for Old Town’s canoes that were built prior to 1976 still exist and disclose that approximately thirty-five forty-eight-inch-long samples were made between 1922 and 1927. It is believed that Old Town rewarded its wholesale distributors with a free forty-eight-inch sample if they ordered a railway boxcar load of canoes, about forty full-size canoes. Distributors received two forty-eight-inch-long samples or one eight-foot sample if they ordered two boxcar loads. Thus, the samples were really used as “premi-ums” to recognize favored distributors, not routinely handed out to salesmen, though they are often called such. Old Town Canoe Co. was by far the greatest maker and distributor of “display” samples, which were also often referred to as “sign” canoes.

Display samples were not sold to individual buyers. Most were distributed prior to the 1930s and were placed in window displays or hung prominently in outfitter stores. Given the relatively low production numbers and disappearance through attrition, they are scarce and highly sought-after collectibles today. This represents one of the finest examples to come to market.

Literature: Stephen B. O’Brien Jr. Fine Arts, “American, Sporting & Western Paintings, Antique Decoys & American Folk Art,” 2004 Catalog, Boston, MA, 2004, lot 35, related canoe illustrated.Susan Audette & David Baker, "The Old Town Canoe Company: Our First Hundred Years," 1998, pp. 1-3, 70, 72.

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