PEM Anishnabe Paddle

Here's another pic of the small Anishinaabe art paddle in the collection of the PEM.

Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa) artist

Paddle, before 1826

Wood, paint

Lake Superior, North America

L: 44 1/8 in, W: 3 5/8 in, D: 1 in (L: 112.1 cm, W: 9.2 cm, D: 2.5 cm)

Gift of Enos Cutler, 1826., 1826

E3720 - SPECIAL COLLECTION

This carved wooden paddle's small handle and painted decoration along the handle and on the tip of the paddle, indicate it was made for the souvenir trade. This paddle is too small to be functional, and the red and black paint that was applied to its surface as decoration would not stand up to use. The carved curvilinear designs, occurring on objects from the Great Lakes region and the eastern Plains, are sometimes interpreted as a feather motif and may be related to curvilinear quillwork patterns in the same area. A ridge runs down the center of the paddle's blade, bisecting the blade into a red side and a black side.

I've previously posted about this paddle with more pics found HERE and HERE.

Red Cedar Antique Paddle

From the June current selection of the CherryGallery is this painted circa 1920 paddle:

Paint Decorated Canoe Paddle
This canoe paddle is handmade of Western red cedar and has multi-colored paint decoration on the blade front in a Northwest Coast tribal motif (probably the circular face represents an owl and the eye and beak shapes could be ravens). It has a graceful shape and interesting handle form. The back is painted white and the shaft is black. All of the paint has an appealingly worn surface.
Circa 1920
7" w, 60” h

Bill Mason's Clement Paddle

A little bit of canoe history is up for grabs for the enthusiastic collector. Well known instructional paddler Becky Mason (daughter of the canoeing icon Bill Mason) is offering one of her dad's wooden paddles for sale on Ebay. Here's the direct link.

Bill Mason's Clement Paddle

The description from Becky:

This Clement paddle is a 60" long and has a 6" wide blade of laminated softwood that was one of canoeing icon Bill Mason's personal paddles. He used it in rapids and flatwater so he applied fiberglass on the tip to strengthen it. At the time, circa 1970's, a Clement paddle was one of the most popular makes of paddle. Bill usually marked his paddling gear with one line of gray and one line of red duct tape which you can see in the image on the paddle shaft.

Looks like the auction is open only until June 4th and is already passed the $300 (US) mark in bidding as of this morning. Good luck to everyone and congrats to final winner.

June 5 Update: The auction is over and Bill's paddle sold for a very handsome price of $525 US