This canoe, maker unknown, probably dates from 1890, give or take a few years. It was once thought to be a Gerrish, but Rollin Thurlow looked it over and pretty well ruled Gerrish out as the builder, but was comfortable with the idea of 1890 as an approximate date, given various details of its construction. There is no way to prove its age short of carbon dating, however.
I have another canoe, a rowing canoe, built by Dan Neal. He was an active builder between 1907 and 1923. The canoe's builder's plate gives Dover, Maine as Neal's place of business, indicating that it was likely built before 1922, when Dover "married" Foxcroft, the town across the river, and both then became Dover-Foxcroft. Neal changed his hand-stamped builder's plate to reflect the towns' marriage.
So this canoe could easily be 111 years old, or even more, because Neal occasionally built the odd from any time after 1880, although he did not formally set up business until 1907. Or, it might be as young as 95 years old. There are a couple of construction details that point either way.
So what to do. If I bring them, I think I shall call the first canoe above a centenarian and the second one a likely or probable centenarian.
At Assembly, where anyone can bring and exhibit any canoe, it seems to me any claim of age, backed by whatever evidence or explanation the owner has, should be enough. Let observers decide if the explanation/evidence is good enough to claim the centenarian title (and let any potential buyer, as always,
beware). Part of the fun of old canoes is trying to establish age, by documents, looking at other, similar canoes, and listening to owner's "history," and then evaluating whatever evidence there is. Sometimes "close" is as good as anyone can get, and sometime that is quite good enough.
And by next summer, Deborah and I will have combined ages over 140, leading to the number 272 above, all in fun -- and the question still stands, how old is dirt?