Estate Bark Canoe

Came across this recent local ad for an "Authentic Algonquin" bark canoe claimed to built around 1900 and built in the Ottawa region. Maybe some of the bark canoe experts around here can chime in...

Looks like it has nailed gunwales and a full seam under the hull, so maybe a 2 panel construction. I'm just wondering if a century old bark canoe wouldn't have developed a more aged greyish patina. The interior certainly looks quite weathered. Any thought?

 

$900 a foot? Holy Cats. That's more than a high end kitchen.

 

The 'rule of thumb' that I've heard many others in this area go by when pricing bark canoes over the past few years has been anywhere from $200 - $600 a linear foot, depending upon quality, condition, authenticity and (in the case of newer items) knowledge and reputation of the builder. Can't recall anyone citing $900 as the present 'yardstick', but it's possible, I suppose. I would think that would buy you a very fine example from amongst the creme de la creme of birch bark canoe builders.

 

Looking around the internet, I see that if you order one of Henri Vaillancourt's canoes over 20 feet in length, you'd pay that much...

Some sellers appear to use the very highest price they can find (or imagine) as the base-price of whatever it is they are selling.

 

What ever the market will bear.

 

What has my eyes doing pinwheels isn't what some builder is getting for something wonderful they've created, but what some seller of a used-item dredges up as the "value" of whatever it is they are selling. Such as, "a new Old Town costs $10,000, and I am only asking $3000 for my antique canoe from the 1960s" [which requires full restoration]. Yeah, the canoe may not sell... apparently, few bother to look at what canoes on eBay etc. actually sell for. I guess what amazes me is some folks' failure to do their homework.