Muskoka Antiques; From Old Books and Paper Back To Sports Collectables and Back Again

Signed Records From The Studio of Robert Currie

BEING HAPPY WITH THE ANTIQUE ENTERPRISE - IS IT ATTAINABLE? IS IT PROFITABLE? WHY DO WE REMAIN IF WE'RE NOT ROLLING IN PROFIT?

AS THE WORDS TO THE SONG GO...."IS THAT ALL THERE IS?"

     FIRST OF ALL, I WILL NEVER WATCH ANOTHER SUPER BOWL AGAIN. TWO WEEKS OF HYPE, HOURS OF LEAD-UP DRAMA, AND EVERY BELL AND WHISTLE THROWN INTO THE MIX, TO HERALD A BLOW-OUT THAT, FOR GOSH SAKES, WAS OVER IN THE FIRST QUARTER. WE HAD OUR OWN TAIL-GATE PARTY, AND SUZANNE HAD MADE HER HOMESTEAD CHILI; ROBERT PREPARED THE WINGS. WE HAD PICKLED THIS, AND MARINATED THAT, AND I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO A REAL BARN-BURNER. THANK GOODNESS I'M NOT A GAMBLER, BECAUSE I KNOW I WOULD HAVE PUT IT ALL DOWN ON DENVER, BECAUSE I HAPPEN TO BELIEVE IN THE MAGIC THAT CAN BE UNLEASHED BY A VETERAN QUARTERBACK. EVERYTHING TASTED A LITTLE LESS THAN DELICIOUS, AFTER THE FIRST TEN MINUTES OF PLAY; I GOT HEARTBURN, AND AFTER AWHILE, I STARTED THROWING NAPKINS AT THE TELEVISION; AND EVENTUALLY JUST PULLED DOWN MY BALL CAP OVER MY EYES, AND EVEN ASKED ROBERT TO LOWER THE VOLUME. BOTH LADS THREW IN THE TOWEL EARLY TOO, AND THE ONLY REASON SUZANNE JOINED ME, WAS BECAUSE HER KNITTING AND SEWING GEAR, SITS IN BIG CASES BESIDE HER CHAIR. IT'S CERTAINLY NOT BECAUSE SHE LIKES FOOTBALL. THE HALFTIME SHOW WAS OKAY. WE HAD A PIZZA IN CELEBRATION THAT SEATTLE HADN'T HIT FIFTY POINTS YET.  AS A HYPE-MASTER MYSELF, I KNOW HOW IT ALL WORKS. BEAT THE DRUM, SING THE SONG, START THE PARADE, AND HOPEFULLY, WHAT COMES AT THE OTHER END, WILL BE SOMEWHAT IMPRESSIVE. WE WHO WORK IN THE SPIN BUSINESS, KNOW HOW IMPORTANT IT IS, THAT A GOOD SHOW, OR DYNAMITE PRESENTATION, BE THE POSITIVE END RESULT. IN THE CASE OF THE SUPER BOWL, I MEAN, EVEN IF THEY WERE HONEST ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FOR A BLOW-OUT, THE STANDS WOULD BE FULL, AND THE TELEVISION AUDIENCE, WORLD-WIDE, WOULD STILL BE ENORMOUS. THEY DON'T NEED ALL THE DRAMA TO MAKE IT BETTER. WHAT THEY DID, WAS PUMP-UP THE AUDIENCE, FOR SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT TO THE LEVEL OF MILDLY COMPELLING. I START TO FASCINATE MYSELF WITH THE CAT SCRATCHING AT A FLEA. A LOT OF SPORTS WRITERS AND COMMENTATORS, LED US INTO THE MIDDLE OF WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A GRID-IRON WAR, ONLY TO CONCLUDE AS A MILD-MANNERED, "I'LL TAKE THAT BALL NOW," LOVE-IN, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN APPALLING EVEN AS A PRE-SEASON GAME. MAYBE THERE WAS TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON DENVER AND THEY JUST CRACKED. WHO KNOWS? BUT WITH ALL THE SPICE ON THESE WINGS, AND HEAT COMING FROM THE CHILI, IT WAS DOWNHILL FROM THERE. DINNER WAS THE MOST EXCITING PART OF SUPER BOWL SUNDAY. IT MUST HAVE BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE SEATTLE FANS AS WELL, HOPING THEY'D WIN IN THE FINAL SECONDS OF PLAY. WE WATCH IT BECAUSE OF THIS POTENTIAL, OF HAVING THE GAME DECIDED ON THAT FINAL AMAZING PLAY.....THE END TO END RUN, THE HAIL-MARY PASS, THE FIELD GOAL FROM AN IMPOSSIBLE DISTANCE. I DIDN'T BUY A TICKET, BUT I WANT A REFUND OF MY TIME INVESTED. THEY LOOK DOWN ON OUR FOOTBALL IN CANADA. GEEZ, I THINK WE COULD HAVE TAKEN OUR GREY CUP WINNERS, AND GIVEN SEATTLE A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY. ANYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN WATCHING THIS DEBACLE....WHICH MOST CERTAINLY WILL GO DOWN IN SPORTS HISTORY AS A LESSER EVENT, THAN THE GROUNDHOG'S APPEARANCE IN PUNXSUTAWNEY.  WHAT MAKES A COLLECTOR / DEALER STAY THE COURSE? WHAT ARE THE PERKS? AFTER A GAME LIKE LAST NIGHT, DO WE GIVE UP ON SPORTS COLLECTABLES?

     I have always been open to influence in the antique business. Why wouldn't I be?  If I am able to buy a thousand egg cups, because of the good price I'm offered, then I'm very likely to become an egg-cup advocate. Dealers know this stuff. We have to go with the flow some times, because of what is most available at the time to purchase.....for an acceptable price to allow for profit. There have been times, when I've thought books and art were going to be my mainstay forever, and then, low and behold, something different enters the crowded picture, and I start all over again, collecting related items to fulfill a new and potentially exciting project. I can't predict when this is going to happen, but there have been about twenty twists, turns, and crossroads, in my thirty-five years hustling-up old stuff. I'll give you an intimate example, of one of the most career altering off-shoots, in collecting, that has well, now subsided....or better stated, a trend that I grew out of, due to changing values. I'm not unique in this sense of diversification, because most dealers shift interests based on supply and demand....and in retrospect, hardly recognize their own biography, at the end of their careers, due to so many deviations from what they expected to be the "norm" for the balance of their careers. I started out collecting oil lamps, chairs, books, historic documents and sports related memorabilia. In the early 1990's, I became obsessed with sports heritage, and was consumed with the hockey and baseball card explosion, in popularity, and it seemed we would be doing this as a family forever. We certainly invested enough money in this, to make it a life-long pursuit. Here's what cemented it all in place.
     I had some time on my hands, in the shop, so I decided to look into writing a biography. I made a habit of writing short biographies for the local press, so I figured I would be able to turn one into a full length book. If that is, the subject had a fan base to start with. It had a local potential for about two thousand books, and a general hockey market for thousands more. If a Canadian book sells over a thousand copies, it's a big deal.
     The one I wanted to do most of all, was going to be difficult, and obstacle-strewn, but it was something that seemed enormously necessary. I went over to the Bracebridge arena for a celebrity hockey game, one Sunday afternoon, at around this time of year, and couldn't help notice that there wasn't a mention of Roger Crozier, who had started his hockey career in this same building on James Street. Here was a Calder Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner, a National Hockey League allstar, as a former goaltender of the Detroit Red Wings, the Buffalo Sabres, and the Washington Capitals, and there wasn't even a small photograph of this hometown lad. I get mad at things like this. This was a kid who was given his own town parade, after the Conn Smythe win, and everybody new his gold Mustang, that went with the trophy, for his performance against Montreal that spring. Detroit lost the series, but Roger was voted the most valuable player. The kid from Bracebridge was a star....like the legendary Irvin "Ace" Bailey in his day, with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The historian kicked in, and the writer joined forces, and the antique dealer came up with the items for exhibition. I had three personalities and they worked pretty well together.
      It didn't take too long, or even too much effort, to have afforded Roger some new display-case space at the arena, (I had to petition the town) and launch a biography, with Roger's approval. Roger, at the time, was working as an executive, in Facility Management, with the American Bank, MBNA, and had been returning each summer, to Muskoka, where he and his wife owned a cottage; and was in the early stages of establishing a children's foundation in his home town. Timing was perfect, and as I had known Roger previously, it seemed like a dream-project, because I was a long time hockey playing nut. I was a rink rat from the age of six, and I played hockey until my knees gave-out in the early nineties. Working on Roger's book, and an enhanced exhibit of his hockey memorabilia, was just as good as playing three periods twice a week, and a lot less demanding on the body.
     Roger gave me permission to do the book. I remember meeting Suzanne at lunch, one day at school, and showing her the letter I'd just received, opening the door to commence research. It's kind of a blur after this, because, as I am known to immerse myself deeply in my projects, I sometimes get swallowed by best intentions....to the point, so many things are going on, I have to beg Suzanne to help me sort out and organize my mission statement. Maybe you've been there yourself, where everything is going full speed, but the bunching-up of responsibilities and deadlines, threatens to bring down the circus tent. So the short version of this "most excellent adventure," is that I was given a very expensive display case at the arena, courtesy Roger and MBNA, and was, with great pride, made both curator of the sports hall of fame, and given the responsibilities as the public relations director, for his newly launched charity in the mid-1990's; which I carried out for twelve years. Although the book was never published, no fault of mine, I was able to work with two well known sports writers from the United States, and an accomplished researcher, named Charlie Wilson, working at the time for MBNA. I was working from the Bracebridge side of the story, and it was going great guns. Roger died before all the work was completed, but even when the story was put together, the book never made it to print. I was staggered by this, but I was even more upset that the Crozier Foundation itself, after more than a decade of helping the children of Muskoka, was closed in Canada, and many of the Crozier artifacts on loan, reclaimed by family. Even after it was closed, I spent two years working without a sponsoring group, to keep the hall of fame displays ongoing, and yes it's true, that a majority of the materials were owned by the Currie family. Here's why!
     As an historian, I believe in the power of ownership. My ownership. I don't want to borrow research material. I will if there is no other choice, but if I have my way, I will come to own the resources outright. So when we began this hockey adventure, the antique dealer and historian went nuts on acquisition. As we have mounted numerous freelance exhibits, and operated museum programs at Woodchester Villa and Museum, in Bracebridge, along with a dozen other "show and tell" events in Muskoka, we understood the mission from the very beginning. We needed to immerse ourselves in sports-relating collecting, as fast as possible. I'd already run two Roger Crozier exhibits, before we even shook hands in the contemporary sense. And once we were given responsibility for the hall of fame display cabinets, which included five large sections, we had amassed hundreds of vintage skates, hockey gear, sports memorabilia, from old trophies to sweaters, sports cards, magazines, autographs to antique photographs. We also acquired a large volume of sports memorabilia, representing local athletics and anything pertaining to Roger's career, including the auction we attended, locally, to buy an original 1960's, Detroit hockey jersey, (not Roger's), now in son Andrew's possession. To say we went to extraordinary lengths to own the bulk of the display items that went into those hall of fame cabinets, would be hitting the proverbial nail on the head. When we changed over the display cases, six times each year, eighty percent of the materials were owned by the curators; the other twenty percent was owned by the town and the families of those inductees who made up the personal content of the exhibition. It was just easier this way, and I didn't have to arrange a hundred loan agreements, with artifact owners. When I left the curator's position, I took our memorabilia with us, which shocked the town a little, considering they had always felt they owned everything in the cases. Now they do, because we moved-on to other projects. We are still selling-off the skates, of which I probably had a hundred pair, right down to single blades that had to be nailed onto wooden platforms, or anchored to boots with long leather straps. I had accumulated a pretty fair history of skates in this country, during that twelve year adventure in sports collecting. They weren't worth a lot of money, while I was collecting them, or even today, when at best, they are used by decorators to enhance some interior design project; or to hang off a coat hook on the front verandah.
     It's neither unfortunate nor sad to me, when projects don't turn out as I had hoped. In the antique trade, the best way to sink a lame duck, is to quickly, subtly, move on to a new interest. In my case, we turned on a dime, and worked with the boys to help them move-on in the music profession, and what a twelve year rush this has been....to quell the savage collecting beast. Suzanne and I, being very satisfied with their successes, have shifted our interests in the past two years, to reflect the type of collectable we want to end our careers representing. Suzanne has firmly attached herself to cookery heritage and vintage sewing craft, and I am happily occupied with art, books, and historic documents, much as I began pursuing back in the mid 1970's. Suzanne taught cooking at high school as well as sewing, two pursuits she also enjoyed as home hobbies, along with knitting of course, and methinks she is contented by our final switch of interests, in the antique profession. But when we look back upon the misty, obscured trail we have covered, over the decades, we have to admit it was a long, draining tour of duty to our profession....all of it, to now, a classic trial and error odyssey. Let's just say there were a lot of errors and leave it at that! But the "highs" were out of this world, as they are now, because we love what we're doing, day in, and day out. There may be another huge project that comes to us out of the blue, and I'm sure we will wind up doing roughly the same, and try to buy-up all the related materials we need, to motor-on independently. I still do this with history projects I'm working on, and it has always paid dividends, when at the end, I can freely sell off what is no longer needed. I can't tell you how important it is, to have hard evidence close at hand. It's expensive and demands a lot of hustling, but it's never once let us down....because, we know how to make money from the material, on the other side of the exercise. It's surprising how disappointments evaporate with a little old fashioned profit.
     I really enjoyed working with Roger Crozier, his family, and business associates, and helping fund the summer and winter activities for a lot of Muskoka kids....and operating the hall of fame display, for all those years, was exciting in its own way. So I don't have any regrets....and I can't think of anything else I've been involved, in the antique profession, that haunts of failure or smacks of disenchantment. It's a pretty forgiving profession; acting as a whole, much like the reaction of quick-sand, in-filling speedily and silently, all the hollows we might find ourselves temporarily trapped. But we all like the challenges associated, to the contrary, of finding once again, those level surfaces, that give us lots of room to roam. And roam we do.
     Thanks so much for visiting today's blog. It is always a pleasure, to have you as a guest. It was a crazy day at the shop, a kind of sonic Monday, where everything happened at once.....and we could have used a doubling of the staff. One thing I can say about our business in this New Year.....is that with its increase in popularity, so comes responsibility and new demands. Sometimes I think it was better when we were a small dot on the town map. Have we ever got their attention now. Good times.