c. 1916 Page Brand with original shipping label

The American Sporting Auction (Syracuse, NY) taking place on September 20, 2025 features a neat paddle with an interesting history that appears to have never been used.

Lot 217

American Sporting Auctions

Syracuse, NY, United States

September 20, 2005

Page Brand - New York Boat Oar Company

New York, NY c.1916

54.5" long

Provenance: Private Collection Midwest

Purchased for the Raquette Lake Boys Club by Master Gordon Schwartz and still retains all the original postage and customs documents

Ezekiel Page revolutionized oar making when he patented his groundbreaking oar turning machine and, in 1843, established the New York Boat & Oar Company at 69 West Street in New York City. His invention allowed oars to be produced with unprecedented efficiency, enabling the company to become one of the largest manufacturers of oars, sculls, and paddles of its time. 

The paddle itself features a crisp Page Brand mark and retains its original copper-ridged tip, a detail that ensured durability and performance.

Most interesting is that the paddle blade Page Brand stamps along with a Canadian customs sticker and matching tag documenting its shipment across the border.  Unfortunately a worn watermark smudged the year section on the customs tag but the paddle is assumed to not predate 1916 when the Raquette Lake  Boys Club was founded.  Addressed to Master Gordon Schwartz with his name appearing on both the sticker and the tag, this object offers a rare, almost whimsical glimpse into how fine paddles were casually shipped a century ago.

1922 Canadian Canoe Co paddles

There is an early set of Canadian Canoe Company paddles  on display at the Rondeau Provincial Park visitor centre. They were given as a retirement gift to George Bartlett, superintendent of Algonquin Provincial Park, as a retirement gift in 1922, so these predate the merger of Canadian with the Chestnut & Peterborough companies and would be considered historically significant.

More info about the paddles can be read on this Ontario Parks blog post HERE

Historic Paddle Art: C. Krieghoff - An Officer`s Room in Montreal

Much has been written on the site of canoe related artwork of Artist Cornelius Krieghoff. A replica of the paddle illustrated in his 1848 Lithograph, Indian Wigwam in Lower Canada was finished back in 2017.

Here's another Krieghoff painting featuring a historic paddle design. "An Officer`s Room in Montreal" (1846) features a a busy scene of a room filled with objects related to Canadiana: skates, snowshoes, fishing gear, furs, etc. The painting is believed to represent the quarters of Andrew Aylmer Staunton, an assistant surgeon with the Ordnance Medical Department assigned to the Royal Artillery in Montreal from 1845 to 1848.

Officer's Room in Montreal

Cornelius Krieghoff

Date: 1846/1846

Physical Dimensions: w63.5 x h44.5 cm

Medium: oil on canvas

Provenance: Gift of the Sigmund Samuel Endowment Fund, 1954

Royal Ontario Museum 

Accession Number: 954.188.2

Source Link

Resting on the fireplace mantle is a model bark canoe with high pointed ends typical of the era. It is likely Kreighoff used this model to paint the full sized canoes used in many of his imagined scenes of indigenous life. 

Model Canoe

Tucked behind the sitting Officer appears to be a inverted canoe paddle with a long slender blade and a definite ridge in the centre. Unfortunately, the grip of the paddle is obscured by the positioning of the chair that the officer is sitting on. However, a clear pattern of decoration extending down the shaft and up to the midpoint of the blade shows a contrasting red and blue pattern. There also appears to be a sort of black leafy pattern on the central part of the blade. Although Kreighoff painted many repetitive scenes with decorated paddles in his works, I've never come across this same decoration pattern.

Closeup of inverted paddle

Historic Paddle Photo: Archive.org

A photo dated to 1902 showcasing some paddles and a very early style of canvas canoe in the New Brunswick area...

Lake Nasahie, New Brunswick, 1902 August 21

by Ervin S. Hubbard

Prescott and Seward floating canoe over Outlet of Lake Nasahie

https://archive.org/details/ms2381_c01_b01_i17

Historic Paddle Photo: Wisconsin Ojibwa Paddle

Here's a 1908 photo showcasing a woman and child posing with a birchbark canoe found in the online collection of The Langlade County Historical Society.

Woman and child with a birch bark canoe, 1908

Kingsbury, Arthur J., 1876-1956

Format: Glass negative

Description

An adult and child appear to be preparing to launch a birch bark canoe. 

Handwritten caption reads: "Copyright 1908 by A.J. Kingsbury, Antigo, Wis."

 Langlade County Historical Society

Source Link

The closeup of the paddle shows a very interesting grip shape, a sort of stubby pommel.

Paddle Closeup

It is similar in design to the "Chippewa Woman's Paddle" in the collection of the Smithsonian discussed in the 2017 post here.

Bureau of American Ethnology

BULLETIN 86 - Chippewa Customs

Plate 53

Image Source Link

Paddle Art: S.C. Shaw - THE PADDLE MAKER

Here's a lovely piece of canoe themed art by Canadian Artist, Stuart Clifford Shaw (1896-1970) sold in a 2007 Waddington's Auction.

THE PADDLE MAKER

Stuart Clifford Shaw

Oil on Masonite (14” X 10”)

Source Link

Image Courtesy of Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Toronto

Tom P acquires Chestnut Paddle

Some of the paddles in the private collection of Tom Penniston have been featured on the site. Tom was fortunate to recently acquire another spectacular pieces that was recently up for auction at Waddington's in December of 2024.

 Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Paddle

56.25 x 4.5 x 1 in — 142.9 x 11.4 x 2.5 cm

Image Courtesy of Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Toronto

While not attributed to any specific carver, the paddle's style is reflective of an older form of Maliseet/Wabanaki paddle with the tear-drop blade and pointed tip. A similar paddle shape is seen in an circa 1886 illustration featuring a similar flattened handle and large carved drip ring being paddled by tourists renting out bark canoes from this post here.

One side of the grip face is etched with the former owners name, "W. Chestnut". This would be William T. Chestnut (1867 - 1935) of Chestnut Canoe Co fame. Long before the establishment of the canoe company in 1904, William was an avid outdoorsman and hunter while working in the family business, R. Chestnut & Sons, Hardware Merchants. Surviving documentation and photos showcase his love for outdoor pursuits, including this circa 1887 photograph featuring men of a sporting club in Fredericton, New Brunswick paddling bark canoes near their summer camp, Camp Comfort. William Chestnut on the far left with the white sleeves. 

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Reference number: P5-175

TAYLOR, GEORGE: PHOTOGRAPHS

Description

Eight men in canoes from Camp Comfort Island. The artistic layout of this picture caused it to make quite a hit in 1887. Springhill in background.

Source Link

The resolution and angle prevent seeing any details of his paddle, but it is not a stretch to think that in the 1880's these white patrons were commissioning birchbark canoes and accompanying paddles for their use from local Maliseet craftsmen. St. Mary's First Nation was located was directly across the river from Fredericton. Perhaps that it is the origin of William's which was customized with his name and an etching of nesting birds on the blade.

Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Paddle

56.25 x 4.5 x 1 in — 142.9 x 11.4 x 2.5 cm

Image Courtesy of Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Toronto

 Blade Closeup

Image Courtesy of Waddington's Auctioneers and Appraisers, Toronto

Wabanaki Paddles at the Maine Maritime Museum

Here are four paddles in the collections of the Maine Maritime Museum. They have been grouped together because of their Penobscot / Wabanaki influences.

Canoe Paddles

Catalog Numbers: 2007.024.1 - .4

Descriptions:

1 - Penobscot Indian paddle (70" long)

2 - paddle manufactured by E. M. White, in Penobscot style (69" long)

3 - Wabanaki paddle, probably Penobscot, with wide blade (74" long)

4 - Wabanaki paddle with scalloped edges, possibly Passamaquoddy or Maliseet (69" long) 

https://maritimeme.catalogaccess.com/objects/17153

Tom Penniston's paddle acquisition: Rare decorated Mi'kmaw paddle

Some of the paddles in the private collection of Tom Penniston have been featured on the site. Tom was fortunate to recently acquire another spectacular pieces and has graciously allowed posting pics and details. This one has etched decoration on both sides of the handle but ink/dye drawings on one side of the blade. Dr. Roger J. Lewis, Curator of Mi’kmaq Cultural Heritage at the Nova Scotia Museum, has confirmed the paddle's origins as "definitely Mi’kmaq".

 

Decorated Mi’kmaq paddle

The grip also has a relatively unique style of roll grip that protrudes on one side but is flat on the other.

  

Etched decorations on grip

Ink artwork on blade

The non decorated side of the blade features an inscription with the first two lines reading:

"Made in gravel Pit yarmouth co ns"

" Mrs. L. Luxey made"

Gravel Pit Reserve was situated within Yarmouth county in southern Nova Scotia with the territory now forming part of Acadia First Nation. According to  Dr. Lewis, the Mrs. L. Luxey referred to in the inscription may be Mary "Lucy" Luxey (1855-1938) wife of Louis Luxey, chief of the Reserve. Unfortunately there is no date inscribed on the paddle  but if indeed it as was made by Mrs. Luxey as the inscription infers, it may one of the very few known examples carved by a female carver. 

Further proof of the Mi'kmaq  origin may be in the last line of the inscribed text. The first two words might be read as "al nu". Although the term Mi'kmaq is predominantly used by the tribal group today, another term used to refer to themselves in their own language was  "al nu" or sometimes phonetically written as "el nu". Much later in the mid-20th century the rules for writing were formalized and today the term is written as Lnu  or L' nu meaning "the people". Today, some of the reserves have the word Lnu in the name of the territory. As of yet, the rest of the phrase hasn't been translated.