This auction brings together collections from Toronto, the Niagara Peninsula, Hamilton, Milton, Lake Erie, Woodstock, Peterborough and the Waterloo Region.
Each collection has its own unique flavour or theme. Sometimes the collection is very eclectic. From one collector for example we brought together country primitives, blue onion porcelains, a porcelain sign, Canadiana furniture, mid-century dinnerware and the highlight was an 18th C Queen Anne corner cupboard purchased from Henry Dobson. The finish on the cupboard is as good today as it was when it was last sold.
One collector with an eye for quality and condition focussed on Indigenous bead work and basketry, adding as well folk art pieces from Ontario and the Maritimes including a bird tree from Prudent Viannau. My understanding is that these bird trees decorated his front lawn until some enterprising “pickers” recognized their worth, bought them up and brough them back to Ontario.
Another collection was a time piece from the heyday of Canadiana collecting. The collection, mostly furniture, included a New Brunswick desk, a Quebec chest, another desk from Ontario and so forth. All these pieces were carefully refinished probably 50+ years ago.
We are privileged to offer for sale a Frederick Arthur Verner watercolour. The painting dated 1877 is of his most popular subject – an encampment by a lake or river shore. The painting shows a couple in front of teepees, laundry put out to dry and two birch bark canoes pulled up on shore. It is a relatively large work for Verner. The colours remain strong. Put in a new frame with acid-free matting, it will grace a collector’s walls for decades to come.
There are two decorated stoneware crocks – one from Guelph, Canada West advertising James Massie’s wine and brandy importing business, and one from John Garvey, London advertising his wine and groceries business.
One collector specialized in Waterloo and to a lesser extent Niagara textiles and pottery. We have for sale an exciting collection of Mennonite quilts, and Waterloo and Niagara coverlets, including one signed by Noll Brothers, Petersburg. There are several pieces of 19th C redware and stoneware. Worthy of special note is a long peg rack which came from the Samuel Weber home outside Conestogo. If you check out Michael Bird’s book on Canadian Furniture you will see the photo of the classical corner cupboard from the same home c1837.
And speaking of documented furniture, if you can get your hands on a copy of Don Stewart’s book “A Guide to Pre-Confederation Furniture of English Canada” you will see the Lanark County settle bench c1830 pictured not only on the cover but on page 78. The settle has been recovered in a top-quality Schumacher fabric. Stewart’s book came out our Centennial year, six years before Shackleton’s and eleven years before Pain’s.
What could be better timing than to offer for sale a significant political gift to a retiring federal politician at the same time as a federal election is underway. The piece – a major Inuit carving signed Adamie given to Lincoln Alexander on his retirement from federal politics in 1980. Lincoln Alexander went on to become the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991. The sculpture descended in the Alexander family and comes with full provenance.
Enjoy the auction.
