De Pan

Over the years I've posted on the various canoe-themed artwork of Cornelius Krieghoff (1815 – 1872). A 2010 writup discussed the paddle decoration on a well known painting - Indian Encampment at Falls.



A relatively new online exhibit, Heritage Passages, features some more detailed full-sized images of historic Canadian artwork no longer in copyright. Among them is this same painting, albeit listed with a different title. Unfortunately, the high resolution image (3.2mb jpg) is in greyscale.




Nonetheless, you can clearly make out the decorated paddle resting on the rolled pack cloth in the centre of the image, a further clue to the decorations on native paddles in this time period.

Here's another antique paddle from the archives on LiveAuctioneers.com. It is described as a Penobscot Paddle, circa 1900 with a red-brown pigment on the blade. The delicately shaped handle has wonderful curved features with incised floral and C-scroll designs. It's a long one at 77 inches!


Penobscot Carved Wood Paddle
circa 1900length: 77 inches

The same paddle posted on Skinner Auctions revealed an estimated price of $400-$600 with the final hammer price of $2,370.


Feb 23, 2016 UPDATE: This paddle is now in the collection of the Hudson Museum, University of Maine. For more images and other details see post here. 

This design has Rod Stephens' imprint all over it. Rod was a huge fan of the big, beamy, center cockpit ketch as a cruising boat. This looks like a natural development of two previous designs: Yankee, design #1278 and Torea, design #1927.

The T.O.C.K. (Tartan Offshore Cruising Ketch) was put into production in 1976 for short run that lasted two years. 30 boats were produced.

The boats must be fun to sail, especially with the cockpit so far forward.


Here are the plans.

Blog reader R.C. Cross has submitted more photos of some paddles made with curly Douglas fir. The first one on the left was the paddle previously featured in a post back in 2012. The remaining two are new creations.



The material for the paddle on the far right was from a 2x4. It was joined with a spline of black walnut to make the width. Lovely contrast and stunning grain patterns! Below is a closeup photo of the blades. The grain pattern on the middle blade is very much like the banding patterns on Damascus steel blades. Wow.

Just when we think we have identified all S&S built by Carlini of Italy, we find these two addition builds. The two boats were built in 1960. They are simple boats designed to rate under the R.O.R.C. Rule. Construction is of conventional scantlings: white oak backbone, steam bent white oak frames and single planked in mahogany with Everdur fasteners.

Please find below an updated list of Carlini built boats. We have added these two projects and we now find a total of 20 boats built by Carlini between 1956-1984. Many have been posted on this blog site. You can simply do a search in the field provided at top by either design number or boat name. Looking at the list I would hazard a guess that the boat built for Dr. Combe may have been named Kiwi, based on his second Carlini boat built two years later.

Here's the list. Please double click for zoom.


Here are the plans.