BUT HERE'S WHERE GRAVENHURST SHINES - AND I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT!
MUSKOKA ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES? GRAVENHURST HERITAGE ITEMS AMONGST THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER, YEAR IN, YEAR OUT!
I'M AN "OLD FART OF AN ANTIQUE DEALER." THIS IS WHAT MY LOVELY WIFE AND BUSINESS PARTNER CALLS ME THESE DAYS. WHICH IS BETTER THAN WHEN SHE USED TO REFER TO ME AS……"OLD JOE," IN FOND RESEMBLANCE, AFTER THE DICKENSIAN CHARACTER, FROM "A CHRISTMAS CAROL." OLD JOE OPERATED THE CLUTTERED SECOND HAND SHOP, WHERE SCROOGE'S MAIDS, AND THE UNDERTAKER, TOOK THEIR STOLEN GOODS TO SELL, AFTER THE DEATH OF THE OLD SKIN FLINT.
I SELL A LOT OF MUSKOKA RELATED COLLECTIBLES, MEMORABILIA AND ANTIQUES WITH PROVENANCE. I BEGAN SELLING OUT-OF-PRINT MUSKOKA BOOKS, ORIGINALLY, BACK IN THE EARLY 1970'S, AND ALTHOUGH THE MARKET FOR VINTAGE REGIONAL HISTORIES HAS DECLINED SOMEWHAT, I ALWAYS HAVE A SUPPLY OF LOCAL HISTORIES IN RESERVE. WHAT HELPED TO SOFTEN THE MARKET, WAS WHEN A NUMBER OF REPRINTS WERE ISSUED OF THE ORIGINAL TEXTS, INCLUDING THE MUSKOKA GUIDEBOOK AND ATLAS. IN THIS CASE, I WAS SELLING SOME EARLY 1970'S HARDCOVER REPRINTS……ONE A NUMBERED VERSION, IN BLACK I BELIEVE, AND A GENERAL CIRCULATION ISSUE, WITH A BLUE COVER. THE SMALL PRINTING KEPT PRICES HIGH UNTIL THE LATE 1990'S, WHEN ANOTHER REPRINT BEGAN DRIVING PRICES LOWER. I OFTEN SOLD THE NUMBERED COPIES FOR $125 EACH, AND THE BLUE COVER, GENERAL PRINTING, FOR $75.00. GADS, I WAS MAKING SUBSTANTIAL PROFITS BUILDING MUSKOKA REFERENCE LIBRARIES FOR MY COLLECTOR FRIENDS. I EARNED MY PROFITS, BECAUSE I HAD TO TRAVEL THOUSANDS OF MILES BACK THEN, TO GATHER UP MUSKOKA HISTORIES FROM BOOK SHOPS ALL OVER SOUTHERN ONTARIO.
FROM THE ONSET OF THE 1990'S, A LARGE PART OF OUR DAY TO DAY BUSINESS, WAS THE HUNT FOR RARE MUSKOKA COLLECTIBLES. WE HAD BUYERS FOR BOOKS, EVEN BEFORE WE FOUND THEM. I'VE SOLD SO MUCH STUFF SINCE, I ONLY HAVE A FAINT MEMORY OF ALL THE IMPORTANT RELICS THAT PASSED THROUGH OUR SHOP DOORS…..AND OTHER PIECES THAT WE SOLD ONLINE FOR MORE THAN TEN YEARS. AS I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT PREVIOUSLY, SOME OF THE MILESTONE PIECES INCLUDED A SPECIAL INVOICE AND BOAT REPAIR "CARD" FILE CABINET, ONCE IN THE MINETT SHIELDS BOAT WORKS, IN BRACEBRIDGE. IT STILL CONTAINED DOZENS OF MINETT SHIELDS WORK ORDERS, STAMPED WITH THE BOAT-BUILDERS' NAME, WITH INDICATIONS ABOUT THE WORK COMPLETED, AND THE EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIRS. THIS WAS SOLD TO AN ADMIRER OF MINETT-SHIELDS BOATS. THE SECOND GEM, WAS A BENCH FROM THE SAGAMO, WE PURCHASED AT AN AUCTION IN WINDERMERE. WE ALSO PURCHASED A LARGE WHACK OF GLASS SLIDES, DURING THIS SAME SALE, IN THE VILLAGE, WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHS OF WIGWASSAN LODGE, ON TOBIN'S ISLAND. WE SOLD MOST OF THE COLLECTION OFF, BUT KEPT SEVERAL KEEPSAKE IMAGES OF THE WIGWASSAN DITCHBURNS, WHICH WERE KNOWN AS "WIGGY I," WIGGY 2," AND "WIGGY 3." IN SEVERAL OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS, THERE ARE IMAGES, FEATURING ONE OF THESE BEAUTIFUL DITCHBURNS, PULLING WATER SKIERS.
I HAVE APPRAISED MUSKOKA RELATED ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES FOR SEVERAL REGIONAL MUSEUMS, AND HAVE BEEN CONSULTED MANY TIMES, PRIVATELY, ABOUT SIGNIFICANT COLLECTIONS OF LOCAL MEMORABILIA…..AND WE'VE PURCHASED A NUMBER OF THEM, INCLUDING A LARGE COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 1920'S TO 1950'S, FROM A COTTAGER ON BROWNING ISLAND. WE HAVE A LOT OF NEGATIVES, AND MANY IMAGES OF THE MUSKOKA LAKES STEAMSHIPS IN PASSAGE…….AND SOMETIMES MOORED TOGETHER TO EXCHANGE FREIGHT, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE. WE DON'T POSSESS AS MUCH AS WE ONCE DID, BUT THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS IN THE ANTIQUE BUSINESS……ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'VE BEEN WORKING IN THE FIELD SINCE THE LATE 1970'S, WHICH WAS FROM MY FIRST BRACEBRIDGE SHOP, ON MANITOBA STREET, KNOWN AS OLD MILL ANTIQUES.
GRAVENHURST IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE OLD MUSKOKA STUFF GAME
It may surprise some Gravenhurst folks, to know that our town's heritage, is highly sought after by Muskoka collectors. Rabid Muskoka collectors! I've been one myself, and I've met a lot of up and coming collector obsessives, who have found a great deal of enjoyment collecting regional antique and nostalgia items. Right now, Muskoka pieces, with full provenance, are attracting huge prices on the open market. The Toronto market is certainly where it's happening most of all. The demand is larger than I've ever known it, and demand appears to be insatiable.
It just so happens, that Gravenhurst is amongst the best of the best, when it comes to the most expensive pieces coming for sale these days. In my well tutored experience, the huge increase in marine heritage regionally, has pushed both the Navigation Company, as it existed, and the major boat works, like Ditchburn, into the nose-bleed section of price escalation. The Greavette Boat Works memorabilia is close behind. There are a lot of steamship heritage items out there, and whether it is a Sagamo inscribed spoon, or Navigation Company hotel-ware, the asking prices are staggering……well beyond anything I could have imagined, when I began selling these type of collectibles, in my early years of antique hunting. If you have engraved, stamped, or marked pieces with the Navigation Company crest, you have amongst the most collectible items of all the regional fare. In a parallel, are any items similarly marked or attributed to Ditchburn Boats…..including the launches themselves. Our only claim here is a distant memory now. Suzanne's parents used to own the second longest Ditchburn ever built, known as the Shirl-evon, which was used by staff at the Windermere Marina, when the Stripps owned it, to deliver luggage and cottagers, heading over to Tobin's Island from the mainland. Gravenhurst is definitely in the forefront, in terms of value of collectibles, for these two well known industries from the past.
Of course, crested items from Windermere House, (Lake Rosseau) the Royal Muskoka, (also Lake Rosseau) and Bigwin Inn, (Lake of Bays), also attract substantial prices from Muskoka collectible dealers. Additionally, other boat works are also in high demand, ongoing, including Minnett-Shields and Duke Boats. Muskoka postcards are a huge and active collecting enterprise, and resorts and steamships are amongst the biggest sellers. Prices for original documents, with key Muskoka businesses, especially the steamships, and boat-works, have escalated annually, over the past ten years, and the sale of original photographs of boats, trains, and resort life, have also gone through the roof. Even items like Windermere Dairy cans, in short supply, and stamped crocks, for local mercantile enterprises, can easily hit from between two hundred to six hundred dollars per item. I have heard stories about crested Muskoka hotel-ware chamber pots, being sold for half a grand, because of their rarity.
One of the most coveted collectible items, today, is an original Kee Poster, from Bala, from its heyday. The bigger the performer, like Louis Armstrong, the bigger the price. In fact, there are many reprints out there that are basically worthless…..at least in my appraisal. I hate seeing things like this happen, but where there's big money, there's an urge to duplicate for profit. I am careful to avoid all such reproduction situations, and they do happen with increasing regularity these days. It started off with poor blow-up reproductions of area postcards, which I have always refused to have in my shop or possession. We will only deal with original items, that can be authenticated.
Brown's Beverages was known throughout the District of Muskoka, and its vintage bottles are still highly sought after by collectors. In the last year or so, I sold a good condition seltzer bottle, with a big and beautiful "J.D. Brown," labelled on the front, and engraved on the chrome seltzer top. I have a really neat, 1970's Brown's Beverages ginger ale bottle, with the stretched neck, as they did with 7-Up as a sales gimmick. It's just a great piece that I'll show you in a future blog…..if and when I can get son Robert to take a digital image. I've never seen another one like it, but I'm assuming they did more than one as a company promotion. It will sell eventually for about fifty bucks. I recently sold a Santa's Village collectible, with two carved bears, for forty dollars. It was one that I had never seen before, which as a rabid Muskoka collector, means it's one of only a few available out there on the hustings.
We currently have a Bigwin Inn, labelled Bird's Blanket, I believe it is……sort of a double blessing, in that it is from a local resort and a local industry at the same time. We usually have four or five Birds Woollen Mill Blankets in, at our shop, as they are still popular amongst the cottagers. The Bird's Mill was in Bracebridge, which dated back to the late 1880's, and the cottage community was a huge economic boost to the industry well into the 1900's. In many of the old family cottages, you can find a collection of Birds wool blankets still in the cupboards. Suzanne and I used to run the Bird's museum in Bracebridge, known as Woodchester Villa, back in our wild days of too much energy…..too few hours in the day.
There are thousands of significant Muskoka heirloom, heritage pieces out there, yet to be discovered. Maybe you have some you'd like to sell off. We welcome consignments, if we can't afford to buy it outright, and frankly, some of the pieces are so costly, we probably couldn't afford the luxury. But there are lots of buyers out there, who are more than a little desirous, of getting navigation and boat building nostalgia, from chrome decorations, and logos, to old brochures and postcards. In addition, if you have an interesting piece, that isn't marked, but you can prove belonged to a steamship, or that was on a Ditchburn, or Greavette launch, provenance is just as important as an actual crest in most cases. Our Sagamo bench, did not have a name imprinted, or a stamp to identify positively, that it came from this Gravenhurst steamship. But the chap we purchased it from, who was well known for his navigation connections, had the provenance to prove its past use. The bench sold in one day, from our Bracebridge shop.
There are other significant Muskoka related collectibles, that should be mentioned, including railway memorabilia, that have Muskoka as a destination; or have local stops registered on a schedule….or train station map or poster, showing connections with Navigation Company steamships at Muskoka Wharf. This is the same for Bala and Lake Joseph stations, two highly desirable and valuable poster schedules.
We have an original fold-up showcase / counter from the former Bush IDA in Gravenhurst, and another cabinet with glass door, that apparently was from one of the oldest hotels in Gravenhurst…..which may have been the Queen's. We do believe it held liquor, as we have seen similar cases, in old photographs of other hotels, in Ontario, from around the same time. We also possess an old showcase from the Windermere Marina, from its earliest days, connected to Windermere House. A few years ago we owned a section of the original Windermere House post boxes…..all brass fixtures with bevelled glass windows in each of the door windows. My prize, was a hand carved battleship, about two feet long, that had been crafted by a solider, in the Calydor German Prisoner of War Camp, here in Gravenhurst. It was traded for a bottle of liquor, through the fence, or at least the story goes. I sold it to an American collector more than a decade ago. One of the pitfalls of being a dealer but also a very obsessed collector. To keep collecting, yup, we have to keep selling.
The biggest one that got away? The dealer colleague who sold off an original Ditchburn Boat Works company seal, (levered device to make paper imprints), for a hundred bucks. This would be worth from between six hundred and a thousand dollars by today's collecting interest. So if you think you might have something of interest, to my collector friends, well, don't be a stranger. If you want a rough appraisal, feel free to send me an image of the item(s), or description. Or better still, when you're in the vicinity of our main street shop, here in Gravenhurst, bring it in for a free appraisal. The cost to you……that I am at least able to make note of it, in my book of Muskoka collectibles……which is of critical importance for any appraiser…..and author of stories like this.
Just thought Gravenhurst folks might like to know, just how popular our town and its history is these days, in the steaming hot collectible market…..which has, by the way, traversed through quite a number of economic down-turns, and is still active, and escalating, in values, for the most coveted pieces. As for the treasure remaining? I'm willing to bet, the best finds are yet to come, as more people become aware of the gold-mine their sitting-on here in Gravenhurst. Look around. Maybe it's time to part with that Sagamo silver "sugar and cream set"…… or the Ditchburn sign you've got mounted on the family room wall.
Hope everything is going well for you, on the cusp of a great New Year. Ours will be a quiet family celebration, with good food and beverage, and this cozy old hearth, where we will spend many winter nights this coming New Year. Thanks for visiting. Wrap-up, because the forecast is for a big chill coming.
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