Good afternoon, I picked up a diamond in the rough for free recently. After a solid cleaning, I found the barely legible serial number. Decks and thwarts indicate Carleton. Any information would be greatly appreciated! It’s a 17’er
Carleton 17 1822
- Thread starter tgebhardt
- Start date
Congratulations, this is a great find. The Carleton with serial number 1822 has no build record and dates from before 1910 when the company was purchased by Old Town. However, your canoe has many Old Town characteristics including diamond headed bolts. My guess is that you actually have a Carleton with a serial number in the 1822x range. This range includes several 17 foot long canoes. I would encourage you to check both ends again to see if you can determine the missing digit. The suggestions at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/791/ may help. Please post some pictures of the numbers and surrounding areas if you are still not sure. It would also be helpful to know if the trim woods are birch or mahogany. Thanks,
Benson
Benson
Hi Benson, thanks for an incredibly fast reply. I had been told that the diamond bolts were throwing things off a bit. For the serial number, one stem is not discernible. The other looked like there could be a 5 after the 1822. A few things to note, there is a third thwart which Is not shown in the photos (broken) but the bolt is there. Also, the deck shapes are throwing me off too. Few more photos here. I will check the species of the trim tomorrow, I’m 90% sure it’s mahogany.
Attachments
The Carleton canoe with serial number 18225 is a 17 foot long, regular (or middle) grade, Carleton model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, and birch seats. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on February 18th, 1924 to Cincinnati, Ohio. This doesn't seem like a good match for your canoe.
My guess is that you may actually have the Carleton canoe with serial number 18223. This is a 17 foot long, Indian Princess (or top) grade, Carleton model with red Western cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, and mahogany seats. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on February 19th, 1924 to New York City. Your canoe also appears to have had a floor rack which was standard with this model. See http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/12605/ for a description from the 1922 catalog. Scans showing both of these build records can be found below.
These scans and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. The deck shape is correct for a Carleton model. There appears to be a shadow and nail holes on the bow from where the original tag was located. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the restoration,
Benson
My guess is that you may actually have the Carleton canoe with serial number 18223. This is a 17 foot long, Indian Princess (or top) grade, Carleton model with red Western cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, and mahogany seats. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on February 19th, 1924 to New York City. Your canoe also appears to have had a floor rack which was standard with this model. See http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/12605/ for a description from the 1922 catalog. Scans showing both of these build records can be found below.
These scans and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. The deck shape is correct for a Carleton model. There appears to be a shadow and nail holes on the bow from where the original tag was located. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the restoration,
Benson
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