BACK TO ANTIQUES FOR ANOTHER SEASON

I picked up this oil on masonite, painted by an artist named Dan Titman, while on an antique and vintage guitar (and accessory) hunt this past week, with lads Andrew and Robert. We’ve been doing this habitually since they were born. I’ve walked through many antique malls wearing a snuggly wit human cargo. Either Andrew or Rob. I dare say they could carry me in a snuggly today. I might be okay with that because of my bad hockey knee and rickety hip. The only thing I had to watch for was when a hand came whipping out of the snuggly to grab a piece of pottery or glass we were passing. Both boys had lightning fast reflexes, and it very nearly cost us in damage. Andrew once grabbed a several hundred dollar wood carving, of a duck, at the home of Muskoka artist Weldon Tracy, during an on-site interview. We were able to unfasten his fist on the waterfowl’s throat, without serious damage to the bird. Even as a kid, he knew quality when he saw it!

But we have always hunted for antiques and collectables as a family, and it’s no different now. Well, the only real difference is, we have a lot less time to hit the road these days. The boys have their music shop, on Muskoka Road, here in Gravenhurst, and both work during the evenings, in the tech departments of local entertainment venues......and they have a significant cast of students they teach as well. We have to rob Peter to pay Paul, you might say, in order to get enough travel time to pick up inventory. It’s a great and nostalgic trip then, for the old gang (mom had to work) to head out on the open road......right off the pages of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” and dawdle in the stores we adore. While I got a great painting.....the sugar bush above, Andrew picked up a good-condition RCA Victrola, circa 1907, and Robert picked up an excellent reference book on early Canadian bands, and the personalities who made-up the music scene of the 1960's and 70's. They get these music legends popping into the store frequently, and they want to know more about the great and endearing talents who cut the trail from here to there. Andrew also picked up a neat tube radio at Carousel Collectables, (mainstreet) in Orillia. We like this tidy and interesting shop and plan to visit often.

We came back, after a day’s hustling about, with a plethora of drums and drum accessories, a banjo, and three guitars. Not quite a full van load but what we consider a worthwhile outing in the “old stuff trade.”

It’s at this time of year that I think about sugar bushes, my experiences visiting many of them, and about the joy of the antique business.......that usually quiets down during the winter season. That’s the traditional time in Muskoka, when dealers start fanning out around the province and beyond, to find items for their shops and sales for the summer season. We’ve taken a few months off our online antique enterprise due to the high Canadian dollar, which hurts our many American buyers, especially on shipping costs. For about ten years now, seventy-five percent of online sales have gone to our friends to the south. The Recession did hinder some of our business, particularly art sales, although we have found new avenues for historic paper and documents, old photographs and smaller collectibles. The boys’ music business is flourishing with nostalgia and affordable, good quality guitars and drums. Their vinyl business is a going concern. It’s keeping up with demand that pushes us out on the road more these days, to build back inventory for the summer season. It the typical Muskoka hustle most retailers enjoy because it means “coming into season,” versus “heading out of the season,” which can mean slow times ahead. We’ve been spiriting right along.

I’ve got a dozen significant restoration projects on the go and the first warm days of March will find me fumbling around the shed, trying to pull the tables and trunks outside for preliminary repairs. I love this time of year. While many folks despise restoring old pieces, I’m in my element. All the frustrations of the winter season are swallowed up pretty fast, scraping and sanding old steamer trunks and pine tables. I enjoy writing but to be honest, it’s killing me and not softly. I suffer from a bad back from years of this writing stuff, and I very nearly cripple myself after a winter-season jag. I need to get outside and work on these relic pieces, where I can stand for awhile. I can’t find a chair that suits my back, so I just try to limit my hours at the keyboard. I’m thinking about a lap top for the future. Suzanne thinks I should buy a portable Smith Corona from the thrift shop instead, and set it on a board across my lap......so I can sit in my easy chair writing all day. I think she’s being sarcastic but I just nod that I’ll consider it. Having spent most of my life on manuals, and typing so hard that it actually ripped apart the ribbon, as well as the paper, I don’t think it’s a viable solution.

My very next writing project, is to finally commence the first part of a future website for Andrew and Robert’s music business......which will be a regularly updated story-line, all about their businesses, their newest friends and upcoming projects......as a sort of permanent record of how it all began. They like the idea of one day putting the copy into book form, for the benefit of customers. It has been done before, by other well known music shop owners. And dad, afterall, is always looking for a new and interesting writing assignment.....and word is, he work’s cheap. Seeing as Suzanne and I did a lot of the ground work to get both boys into the industry, we’d be crazy not to document our role......just in case one day, in all their fame and fortune, they were to forget the actuality of a family enterprise. Suzanne is shaking her head, just now. She knows they’d never forget their favorite and only accountant, general manager and woolen mitten knitter. The cookie maker for the store! Hell, I’m just the gnarly old roadie with the van, who knows how to wordsmith.

As far as the painting above......it reminds Suzanne of her relative Bill Veitch’s sugar bush in Ufford, a place she loved to go with her father (Lion) Norm Stripp, leading up to the maple syrup festival put on by the Windermere Lions every April. This painting......although we are in the business of selling them, has made it to our permanent collection of Canadian art.....and I wouldn’t even think about trying to unclench her fingers from the frame.

By necessity of our family industry, I will have to divide my time a wee bit differently, if I’m to get these restoration projects done by the summer season. We had a good autumn season (antique) “picking” from around Muskoka but a lot of the pieces were in the rough. We got them for a better price but in order to sell them for a greater dividend, we have a lot of work to invest first.

Our theme this year is woolen colletables and Suzanne is currently restoring numerous old blankets......and when not doing this, she’s knitting socks and mitts which are available from the boys’ music shop in the old Muskoka Theatre building.

Lots more to come. I’ll take you out on the antique hustings for a little actuality, and you can see through the eyes of an obsessive compulsive collector, just how exciting it can be to hustle and sometimes wrestle for a coveted piece. Whatever you think you know about the antique business, you will find this upcoming collection of blogs, enlightening, entertaining, and possibly a little scary. We’re cut, you see, from the same cloth as the tomb raiders. Adventure is the fatal attraction for all those who enter the profession. I’ll explain soon.

If you know anything about the artist or the location of the painting included with this blog, please drop me an email. We believe it is from Quebec.