Maple Syrup and Sugar Bush Collectibles Are Popular For Antiques Dealers

MAPLE SYRUP, AND SUGAR BUSH COLLECTABLES ARE ALWAYS GOOD INVESTMENTS - FOR ENJOYMENT'S SAKE, AND FOR FUTURE RETURN

WE HAVE SOLD OUR SUGAR BUSH NOSTALGIA QUICKLY - ESPECIALLY VINTAGE SAP BUCKETS AND SPILES

     IF YOU HAVE A FEW MOMENTS TO BROWSE, PLEASE CHECK OUT SUZANNE'S "Currie's Antiques" Facebook Page, to see what we're up to, here on Gravenhurst's main street.
     When we travel in Ontario, antique hunting, we love dropping in to see local mom and pop collectable shops, that we hope, will reflect somewhat the character of the host community. It's what we have been doing since we started collecting antiques as newlyweds. We like regional day-trips and seeing as I write for a publication, known as "Curious; The Tourist Guide," I'm always searching for interesting story ideas in the places we dawdle, and hopefully, shop as well! We have had picnics in charming little parks, and riversides, all over this region and beyond. If we're going to travel for our profession, we're going to enjoy the trip in all its glory, from here to there, and back. I'm not going to miss a thing. It's part of the whole antique adventure, and we know all the great little places to get the best butter tarts, apple pies, summer sausage, preserves, jams, and magnificent baked goods. I'm not just an antique hunter. I'm a gad-about in the tradition of comedian / actor, W.C. Fields, who was famous for his extravagant road trips with friends, and loads of food and beverage.
     We will spend some time visiting antique malls, but it's not what we get excited about, because they're usually predictable before heading inside. Instead of getting a sense of the regional and community interests, industry, and heritage, we find a collective of vendors reflecting nowhere in particular, but everywhere generally. We would trade these visits in a heartbeat, for the chance of visiting a genuine local antique dealer, selling items found regionally, some with provenance attached. It's what we grade highly in antique shops, and seeing as I've been writing about this since 1978, it wouldn't hurt my feelings to be called an antique snob. It's not that I favor antique shops where there are only high priced pieces, old world art, furniture, and china for an exclusively rich clientele, and nary a thing for a poor bloke like me. Rather, as a hobby travel writer to boot, I really like the association of businesses that, in my perception, that are locally inspired, and not just the handiwork of a business person, who has little, if any interest, in being considered "local." It's just about the money, you see, and I can't blame them for this. These are shops and collectives I tend to avoid, because we have them in our own home town, and I shop there instead. Show me a home-grown, truly characteristic venue, mirroring local values and history, whether it is in St. Jacobs, Beaverton, Sutton, Orangeville, Huntsville or Dorset, and I'm in like Flint. I want the local experience, especially when it comes to hunting for antiques and collectables. There are a few antique malls I've visited, regionally, that I feel have done a better job reflecting in this fashion, and it's why we shop there frequently.
     This is exactly what we have attempted to do with our own antique shop in Gravenhurst, as humble as it is, compared to our mega competitors pooling close to us. Our combined music and antique collective, is first and foremost, a home-grown business; set up by hometowners to proudly promote the region of South Muskoka. We're not a Toronto business. We would hate to think someone left our business, muttering with the sense of complaint, "well, it's like all the others you see in the city." We hope that we can represent the heritage of our region responsibly, and to reinforce this, we are also active Muskoka historians, who love to brag about the good graces of living in God's country. If we don't know the answer to your historical enquiry, we will ask you to leave a contact address or number, and we'll get back to you. It's what we want to portray, and this has very little to do with making money; because we're pretty sure, most of our customers love to ramble about in large antique malls where the collectables of the world are stacked to the ceilings. But give us a modest rate of return for our work, and the chance to showcase what we think you should know about Muskoka, and well, it's all a bonus after this. Suzanne just handed me a newspaper article, from a regional publisher, and asked me if a particular claim was correct, about the estate of Sir John Eaton, on Lake Rosseau. The reference was that Sir John was the founder of the department store chain that once stretched across Canada. It was another of those jaw clenching situations, for me, because it seems so rudimentary as an historical writer (I won't name names) to research for a half a minute, to find out that, instead, it was Sir John's father, Timothy Eaton, who founded the Eatons Empire, and his cottage was "Ravenscrag," in Windermere, Lake Rosseau. John's estate would become known as Kawandag, being turned into a frontier-type theme park in the 1960's, and then Rosseau Lakes College after this. Yes, we do like correcting historical inaccuracies here, for the benefit of our interested customers. Go ahead ask us something about Muskoka's past.
     In the ever-fickle antique and collectable trade, there are, whether the public knows it or not, significant annual trend changes, just like what is experienced in the fashion industry. It just doesn't happen on a Paris runway as it does for clothing designers. Even in our small-town shop, with a modest stake in antiques and collectables, we have had to deal with dozens upon dozens of shifts in customer interests over the years, since we opened our first mainstreet business (Birch Hollow Antiques) in the late 1980's.
      Ours is an historically precarious profession at the best of times, so having to watch out for sudden and sharp trend-shifts, and avoiding buying specific collections on the up-swing of popularity, or at the peak of the market, is the difference between a veteran dealer and a rookie. I've watched a lot of untutored dealers, who thought they were pretty smart, buying large collections of vintage glass and china, that we had turned down, and then having to come to us, trying to regain some of the money they had invested. I've seen it happen even with books, when collectors simply stopped buying for a period of time, possibly sensing the market was getting too hot, and prices were too high, to buy too much or at the same pace as the year before.
     Collectors carry a lot of weight, when it comes to dealer prosperity, and when they decide to punish vendors for high and speculative pricing, it's amazing how fast buyers can dry-up in protest. They don't need placards to give their protest a damning impact. Consider what happened in the sports card heyday, of the late 1980's, and early 90's, when prices for vintage hockey and baseball cards went through the roof, and then, just as suddenly, came crashing down, leaving thousands of pop-up dealers, stuck with huge inventories of product that was going down in value, like a stone tossed into a lake. While it has recovered quite a bit today, most of the dealers, who were burned back then, have changed direction entirely. As I've admitted with some embarrassment previously, we are ones who still have closets full of hockey and baseball cards, and no, the new collectable issues have not gone up in value.
    We are always wary of buying collections of specific items, whether it is a huge whack of jade-ite, Depression Glass, Pressed Glass, China Patterns, or even cups and saucers. Tea pots? Lately we've been doing okay selling tea pots, after buying a small collection of twenty, six months ago. We only have a couple left. We wouldn't buy a collection of quilts, or vintage wool blankets, unless it was for a very small price. The market is still interested in these, but not for the prices garnered twenty to thirty years ago. We've seen a big difference in what customers are willing to pay for vintage quilts without provenance, and it's a fraction of what it used to be ten years ago. The pioneer and Victorian periods are not in vogue right now, especially with home decorators, and this is what we have to pay attention to, in order to make the right purchases, to meet what customers are most interested in hauling home with them. It is even different than when we started out newest business, here in Gravenhurst, three years ago. Although we can't be too specific, because of a clustering of competitors who may be reading this tome, we have changed direction three times, to adjust to what is currently in demand, and what we feel most comfortable purchasing. It is a fine art, and it doesn't mean we don't get burned occasionally, by investing in articles our customers have suddenly become disinterested.
     Of all the bric-a-brac we buy and sell, and the Canadiana we love to have in stock, because it is always in vogue for us, any relics that have to do with the history, and traditions of the Maple sugar bush, (and maple syrup) are in demand. So much so, that I would never have a hesitation buying a collection of artifacts, from spiles to molds, sap pails to boiling pans, and anything else even remotely to do with sugaring-off. If the price is such, that we can still pass it along to customers, without feeling we are robbing them of their hard earned money. Art featuring a sugar bush with pails hung from the maples, sleighs laden with collection vat and pails, being pulled by horses, or depictions of the sugar shack, are easy to sell, if the price is seen as fair based on quality of the art work, and the reputation of the artist; or what sugar bush scenes, via prints, for example, have custom cut matting and framing of high quality, qualifying them as fine decorator pieces. Frankly we can't keep them in stock. As soon as we bring in vintage tin sap pails, unless we price them too high, they will sell in matter of only several days. Last summer, I brought in ten high top pails, we had in reserve at Birch Hollow, and they were gone in less than two business days. From what Suzanne told me, we sold one pail at a time. It wasn't the case, one customer bought the lot. We have sold dozens of molds, and all types and styles of spiles, wooden to iron, and dozens of paintings and interesting higher quality prints. These artifacts, even just books on maple syrup, are in demand no matter where they are located in Ontario, and the only dealer mistake that might be made, is if the asking prices become ridiculous. I feel comfortable buying these sugar bush relics, because the demand, from when I began in the antique business, in 1977, has never waned in all these years. Thus, the nice assurance, that if you hunt and gather maple syrup related collectables and antiques, you won't have to suffer the ever-changing, evolving trends of the trade, which can be rather brutal if you get stuck holding the wrong quantities and qualities of previously trending pieces; whether silver, pewter, fabric, or pottery. And yes indeed, as a collection, you would likely have no problem attracting interested buyers, wishing to keep the integrity intact. If you had to sell the pieces individually, it still wouldn't be that much of a hardship, because Canadiana has never really lost its lustre, in the eyes of hardcore collectors. Maple syrup collectables, and artifacts, are not only Canadiana (and Americana), but touch on primitives, and folk art, at the same time, as they dwell comfortably in the domain of the home and cottage decorator. They are great pieces to integrate into decorating schemes, and seem easily adapted to interior designs, whether hung as folk art, or situated in the mix of other newer items; such as the case with vintage, painted sap pails, and nicely finished wood molds that look rustic, but seldom appear out of place. Dealers like it when the pieces they have in their collections, can relate so easily, and artistically, to so many fields of interest, from hard core collectors, who try to possess everything they can connected to maple sugar production, to those who just like the rustic charm even a few choice pieces afford, the general ambience of a room, whether in a cottage, lodge, recreation room, or condo.
     Putting a primitive pine chair, table, cupboard, or cabinet, for example, in the mix with modern art and furnishings, would give somewhat the appearance of happenstance, and possibly even dreaded inconsistency; whereas, a small collection of naturally finished maple syrup artifacts, and folk art, would fit in, without need of an explanation for one's excesses. It says you're proudly Canadian, and to fulfill this, it didn't require hanging a hockey stick, or suspending goalie pads from the ceiling. Maple syrup collectables always make such a nice collage, neat and rustic, without necessitating everything around it, to conform to a specific period in history. Truth is, many maple syrup making artifacts have never been retired, in some of the rural climes today, where sugaring-off is still done much the same, and in the traditional lean-to sheds, (from the 1800's), as when it was the homesteaders who were tapping the trees, and boiling down the sap for the year's supply of maple syrup. I've been in sugar shacks where the original period artifacts were still hanging in the shacks much as industry art. Nice to see. Great to own. But these operators aren't about to sell them off either. They have a great respect for the heirlooms of what has become for them, a seasonal tradition with deep roots.