Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Fall 2012
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Imagine the wonder of a one-piece hockey stick carved from wood that has been carbon-dated to over three and a half centuries in the past. We still are.
This incredible find was purchased on a Mi'kmaq reserve in Nova Scotia in the late-2000s. The stick created some controversy among hockey historians when it was put up for sale on eBay with an opening asking bid of $1 million. It is made from yellow birch, which is a pale wood when freshly cut, a hardwood that doesn't age much. While made from a piece of wood that dates from the 1600s, many believe that the stick was crafted in the 19th century. According to Deborah Guinish, acting director of the Nova Scotia-based Mi'kmaq Association for Cultural Studies, hockey sticks have long constituted a major part of Mi'kmaq craftsmanship. In the 1800s, said Guinish, many of the game's earliest players took to the ice wielding Mi'kmaq-made sticks.
The "Centre d'etude nordique" (CEN) at Laval University in Quebec took a sample of the wood, which was shaved off the bottom edge of the blade of the stick, and sent it to the Earth System Science Department of the University of California for Carbon-14 dating. The results of the 2008 test (2 sigma, the most advanced Carbon-14 dating test available) give a Radiocarbon age of "260 +/ - 20 BP" and dates the age of the wood, and not necessarily the stick, to about 1633-1666.
According to the extensive research conducted by our consignor and a few field experts as noted below, it would take a couple of centuries for yellow birch to acquire the dark brownish tint displayed here. It is also specified that the stick is covered with a Mi'kmaq crushed-insect-based shellac, called "La cochenille" in French, which does not alter the color of the wood. This shellac was known to be used by the Mi'kmaq, who have applied it for ages to their tomahawks and other wooden tools and instruments.
The shellac's transparent color paste remains transparent when scratched, which differentiates it from varnish, which, when scratched, makes a gold-dust-like powder. The stick was also observed by a specialist at the "Centre d'etude nordique (CEN)" at the Laval University who found traces of cochenille (the insect) in the shellac and this was also confirmed by an expert in antique wood and furniture restoration who provides expertise for "la Reserve museale de la Capitale nationale". According to the many experts who have studied the stick, no traces of coloration, stain or other substances which would age the wood prematurely were found on the stick which he claims only has natural aging (patina).
The stick is 50 inches at its longest, measured from the tip of the toe of the blade to the top of the shaft. The bottom edge of the blade is 12 inches long, and the shaft is 43 inches long, measured from the bottom edge of the heel to the top of the shaft, which displays the initials "A.W." carved in the middle of one side. Cracks higher up on the opposite side of the shaft follow the grain, including a sliver chipped off the bottom edge. The blade had various gouges and marks on both sides and along the edges. There is a 5-inch-long crack in the middle of one side of the blade that follows the grain from the tip of the toe inwards.
Results of the Carbon-14 dating tests will accompany this remarkable piece of hockey history along with a a notarized letter signed by the consignor detailing the provenance of the stick and confirming that the stick is offered here at auction in the same way, shape and form as it was originally found on the Mi'kmaq reserve in Nova Scotia.
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