Month: July 2025

Part one in a million pt.11

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These finds have been in my garage storage purgatory for five to six years. After moving, I’m tired of having all this junk sitting around not doing anything, so I’m going to try to get it all processed by the end of the year. I’m considering taking a fresh approach to the blog, which would streamline the process a bit and lighten my workload. I’ll keep you posted, obviously.

As for these aging finds, I had one big bin and a smaller box filled with this stuff. I did a cull, and now I’m down to the one big bin. After so many years, some things that once seemed special are no longer. So a bunch of stuff ended up in the yard sale pile, like a bunch of letters from the 1920s, some old postcards, and a few old paintings/sketches that weren’t of any great value.

I’m not going to share anything from the box today. These are all things I didn’t post about, but which ended up in my house for various reasons (and which I saw again once I moved). This Webley Junior 177 air pistol is just really cool looking, I feel like it has a little retro-futuristic thing going on. The other side has a little bit more wear to the metal, but it’s still in very nice condition overall. According to my research, this was likely made in the 30s. Later models had plastic grips, while mine has ribbed metal. These would probably sell for 3-400$ easily, but I’m planning on holding onto it.

I held onto this Telecron clock for years, thinking I might use it once I lived alone. I love the colour and think the design is pretty cute. I have to see if there’s a spot for it, if not I’ll sell it.

I like objects that come with provenance. This small St Anthony statue came with a note stuffed in the bottom, which explains that it was a gift from a nun and a good luck charm. Apparently the head was broken off in 1916, well over 100 years ago. It doesn’t look like they ever tried to repair it, and neither have I. It’s in my cupboard, head by the side. I’m not religious or particularly superstitious but I’m attracted to these types of objects regardless.

Lastly, the bin contains a lot of old photos. These ones ended up in one of my drawers, because I figured they were from Montreal.

These ones I recognized easily. They’re photos of St Joseph’s Oratory, but before they started building the dome. So, most likely the early 20s based on what I’ve read.

I wasn’t sure about the rest. Thankfully, a friend is a highly trained Montreal tour guide, and he told me that they were all from the area. This is the Point St Charles rail yard, circa the 1920s.

Apparently this is the view from Mount Royal, from around the same time. Pretty cool!

Finally, this one is in Old Montreal. The horse and buggy dominance makes it look older, but apparently they stuck around in Quebec a little longer than they did elsewhere.

Oh, and one more thing, this old Valentine from the same time period.

A lot of what’s in that box are old photos, negatives, and so on. Those are hard to process, because they take time to document nicely, and frankly people don’t seem to care about most of them so I wonder if I’m wasting my time. But then, when people do care, they can be very rewarding to share. It’d be nice if I could delegate that task to someone else. We shall see.

The quality dregs

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Someone on Instagram messaged me about this massive pile of trash a few weeks before I moved. My first thought was bedbugs, but apparently the person had talked to the locals and was told that it was some guy clearing out his parent’s stuff. I went with a friend, and clearly we were picking through the dregs of a once great collection, but the dregs were still pretty good.

I found no gold, but a few pieces of silver. I forgot to take a picture of one piece, and I sold it for scrap before the move. It looked like a “warmer” part from an antique tea set, kind of like the bottom of this one but more rectangular. Anyways, it had no hallmarks but tested as silver, and the scrap guy determined it was 80%. So that was probably worth 100$ or so, I forget exactly what it weighed but it was hefty enough. Otherwise, I scrounged this WWII era sterling silver ID bracelet from the bottom of a box of junk. I sold a similar one back in the day for 100$, but the price of silver has gone up a fair bit since then.

This ornate picture framed was also decorated with silver. The silver is pretty thin, so it’s wasn’t worth more than 10$ for scrap, but it’s very pretty regardless.

I picked out some interesting old documents, including a fair bit of hippie stuff. Gandalf’s Garden was a community in England which ran a shop and also published a few magazines. As you can probably tell by the font and the cover art, this was a pretty psychedelic community. Mine is the first issue of the magazine, and it’s in near mint condition. Others in worse condition have sold for well over a hundred, so I listed mine at 250$. We’ll see what happens.

Otherwise, I saved a magazine from the only issue of a magazine published by the Antiuniversity of London, which was another short-lived late 1960s counterculture institution. It’s hard to find any issues online, so I’m asking a good sum for it.

Otherwise, I have a 1970s “Ghetto Ferret” from McGill (no other copies seem to exist), a copy of “Outlook ’72” published by a therapy department of the Douglas Hospital, and the Pipkin Papers, which was apparently written & drawn in 1969 by John Weldon who became well known (by other people, not me) for producing NFB films. The market was surprisingly strong for this one. I ended up selling it for 200$ to an archivist friend, while also throwing in some of the lesser known magazines.

Also interesting were these Birth Control Handbooks from the late 60s/early 70s. Abortion was illegal at the time, and even disseminating this info was illegal. These were written in Montreal but were distributed internationally, with a bunch going to the States. Apparently 3 million were made, so they’re not super uncommon, but they are collectible. They sold for 50$ each on my Instagram selling page.

Here’s a bit more paper ephemera, including old CNR and Cunard Line schedules, an Asprey catalogue, and a WWII era newspaper insert promoting General Motors.

These folks definitely had some antiques. This impressive Canadian Art Pottery vase was made by a company called Ecanada in the 1920s. It cleaned up nicely, and I gave it to a friend to sell on Marketplace.

I’m not sure how to date this copper stuff. There’s a lot of copper pieces that are made to look old, and I don’t know how the manufacturing style changed over the centuries & millennia, although my guess is that this vessel is around 100 years old. I’m also not sure people care – antique copper doesn’t seem like a hot market right now. Regardless, if you know anything about old copper, let us know in the comments!

 

This tin plated copper pot is also quite old. I found a little bag of skeleton keys, which I emptied inside the pot. One of them is foldable, which I hadn’t seen before.

This might be my most intriguing find. I haven’t had much time to research it yet, but the closest match with a Google image search was this piece attributed to 12th-13th century Iran. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to me, it does look very old! That doesn’t necessarily make it valuable, but it’s a pretty cool piece regardless. If anyone has any relevant info, please let me know!

Lastly, I found two of these fun reverse glass painted lights. The image is painted on four separate panes to give it a 3d look. I look forward to trying them out, and maybe putting one or both on my wall. They were made in France and have the plugs to match, so I have to figure that out before I do.

 

More recent finds

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Today I’ll share a few finds from couple of weeks before my move. This pile in front of a recently sold home contained a bunch of artsy things.

I saved a bit of stuff, including this artistic light box thingy. I’d bet that it’s someone’s c. 1975 university art project, but it’s kind of cool regardless. I’ll see if the yard sale shoppers are interested.

I found a bunch of posters and prints, my favourite of which is this unsigned (maybe silk screen?) print that looks to depict an evening in Montreal in the late 80s or so. I’m getting it framed by a friend, so it should be appearing on my wall soon enough. Maybe I’ll share a picture here when it’s done.

I also found this Montreal “baker” license plate from 1963. I couldn’t find any others like it online, much like the 1940 “garage” license plate I found that ended up selling at auction for 536$ around this time last year. (I guess I only mentioned this on my Instagram, there is still a picture there if you want to see – just scroll down my feed).

I’m not sure why a baker would have a special plate. It’s about 8cm narrower than your standard license plate, but the screw holes are right in the corners vs. somewhat closer to center on a usual plate, so it must have been for a car. A license for the wall probably would have been more detailed and also made of paper or cardboard.

Regardless, the license plate market is a hot one, so I feel comfortable doing auctions when I have something unusual. I don’t expect this to go for nearly as much as the garage one, but it does have some bids and the auction ends tonight. Who knows, maybe a couple of bakers will bid it up.

Elsewhere, I know I talked about garbage empathy in my last post, but it’s hard to feel it when the perpetrators are most likely clueless rich kids who don’t understand the value of anything.

I saved a bunch of clothes, most of which I donated. I also saved a bit of jewelry, the nicest pieces being a silver chain, silver Tateossian skull cufflinks, and another pair of cufflinks that appear to be unmarked 14k gold.

I also saved some nice glass pieces, including a Lalique piece on the right. The middle one is signed as well, but it’s hard to make out by who. On the left is a nice crystal box, which has a couple of chips but is good for the yard sale.

Maybe my favourite find there was this antique-looking ornate shelf. I’m not sure what’s more surprising, that it ended up on the curb, or that it survived the voyage. If I recall correctly it was wrapped up in a towel, which helped protect it during the trip to the curb. It is near flawless, besides some flea-bite chips in the stone and a missing screw that doesn’t effect it all that much. I’m very tempted to keep this for myself!

One last find from somewhere else. I hadn’t found a high-end watch box in a while, but I picked this Omega box up a couple weeks back and quickly sold it for 150$. I hope I find more, these boxes are easy to list, quick to sell, and simple to ship.

Otherwise, moving has made me re-evaluate some of my possessions. Marie Kondo is a bit of a meme at this point, but there is some simple wisdom to the “spark joy” criterion. Plus, while I have a love of objects, I also hate having too many of them. So, some of the things I’ve been holding onto for years (often thinking, “I’ll find a place for this once I live on my own”) are ending up in the yard sale pile, or are going back to the curb (usually in such a way as others will find it). It also makes me want to clear more ancient finds from the garage, in particular the “One of a million” series junk, some of which has been sitting around for 6 years now. It’s a complicated job because there’s a lot of cool stuff, a lot of which is (ironically) hard to photograph, but I’ll get it done.