The canoe includes two matching paddles with rounded grips and diamond shaped blades featuring notched shoulders. The blade area is divided into faded red and blue hemispheres painted on the whole blade. The items were purchased by William C. Sturtevant in 1987 from the collection of Colonel C. B. Dyneley, but I believe this to be in error. Colonel Thomas Dyneley (1782-1860), later Lt. General, was commander of the Royal Artillery in Canada from 1847 to 1852 headquartered in Montreal. In 1838, Colonel Dyneley was given the British title of Companion of the Order of Bath, which allowed for him to use the initials CB after his name. In 1853, Dyneley was listed as one of the many Aides-du-camps for Queen Victoria.
The canoe and paddles are believed to date from 1848 which is consistent with Dyneley's deployment. Additionally the items are consistent with other tourist curios made by native groups in the St. Lawrence river corridor often purchased by military officers as souvenirs of their tours Canada.
DONOR NAME: Dr. William C. Sturtevant
COLLECTOR: Colonel C. B. Dyneley
OBJECT TYPE: Canoe Model / Paddle Model
PLACE: Ontario / Quebec, Canada, North America
ACCESSION DATE: 2002-Jun-30
COLLECTION DATE: 1848
ACCESSION NUMBER: 378683
USNM NUMBER: E430522-0
DONOR NAME: Dr. William C. Sturtevant
COLLECTOR: Colonel C. B. Dyneley
OBJECT TYPE: Canoe Model / Paddle Model
PLACE: Ontario / Quebec, Canada, North America
ACCESSION DATE: 2002-Jun-30
COLLECTION DATE: 1848
ACCESSION NUMBER: 378683
USNM NUMBER: E430521-0
This form of paddle and canoe must have been popular as there other surviving models in private and museum collections that have this dual red / blue decorative motif on the paddles. One such example is found in New York's Metropolitan Museum originally discussed in this post here.
Canoe Model with Accoutrements
Ralph T. Coe Collection, Gift of Ralph T. Coe Foundation for the Arts, 2011
Accession Number: 2011.154.6a–p
Provenance states this sample came from en English Country house post 1845 and eventually ended up in the Ralph T. Coe Collection. Dated to post 1845 would make it a contemporary of the models collected by Dyneley.
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2 comments:
That notched grip would be a literal pain in the hand on a full sized paddle.
I agree. I ended up carving a full sized replica of this (in western red cedar) and recently took it for test spin. Post about it will be up soon. It seems there are shoulder notches like that on a few other full sized paddles, mostly from Ojibwa paddles in the Western Superior region. Here's an example.
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