Harold Barrett is an old friend of the Dumpdiggers, and I have personally traded bottles and stories with him since 1996. I see written here on his card that he has been in the antiques business since 1974. Today he sells mostly small furniture and the stuff that young urban professionals use to furnish their 600 sq ft condos, but there was a time when his store was crammed with perfume bottles, pottery, coins, silver cutlery, art deco ashtrays and crystal glassware. Those were happy days when kitsch was cool and old bottles were all the rage.
After some easy conversation on the sidewalk I followed Harold into his store and found two crude English inks basking in the sunlight on an oak table just inside the front door.
‘Where did you get these inks Harold?’
‘They were found by a backhoe operator working near the old racetrack in Weston.’
‘Hmm… Where is Weston again?’
Inside what is now the City of Toronto, at the intersection of Lawrence and Old Weston Rd, there was once a small mill town on the quiet banks of the Humber river. My research tells me that Carleton Track was located on the southeast corner lots of Keele and Dundas St more than one hundred and fifty years ago. This was the very place in which the Queens Plate was inaugurated on
Could these inks have been used by Sir Casimir Gzowski or Thomas Patteson to write to Queen
Today the actual trophy, the 'Queen’s Plate' they position in front of the TV cameras, is actually a gold cup, about a foot high? It should be called the Queen's Gold Cup or something more appropriate.
Back in 1860, Sir Casimir Gzowski was a distinguished engineer whose father had been a Polish officer in the Russian Imperial Guard. He wrote a lot of letters and was probably one of the most well connected men in
Back in 1860, by successfully establishing an annual 'Queen's Plate' incentive, Sir Casimir and Mr. Patteson had made Canadian horse racing “the sport of royalty”.
The Carleton racetrack disappeared as horseracing moved down to the lakeshore area of
When legitimate horse racing solidified at Woodbine there was both thoroughbred and standardbred races, the latter was harness racing with sulkys. Gambling was tolerated and police were usually present at each match.
The Origin of American Standardbred Racehorses
According to Betty and Jack on this
Over time, Messenger’s sons had foals of their own. One odd looking horse in particular, a big-rumped stallion named Hambletonian, was particularly fast.
Over the next 24 years Hambletonian became
Bad News! This ink bottle is just not that old. This vessel was made in
Because I want to know how much its really worth (if anything?) , I put this early aqua LYONS INK on eBay.
DESCRIPTION: Sometimes called a snap bottle, this vessel was made in England in the late 1800s and filled with India ink then packed in wooden gross (144 units) crates and shipped to markets all over the world (in this case, Canada). Sheer top, this aqua colored ink has pronounced vertical ridges on three sides. The fourth side is flat and no doubt once accommodated a paper label. The 3 x3 inch bottle was blown into a mold? I think so. And as you can see in the second picture, there's some embossing in a circular stamp on the bottom of the vessel that reads 'LYONS INK'
The bottle is in 'as found' condition. The stains and blemishes on the glass are well detailed in the third photo. There is also some recent damage to the top.
3 comments:
I think I learnt more about Toronto in the 5 minutes it took to read your post,than from living here for the past 12 years...
Hi..I came from blogcataloue. I don't know much about antiques, but my dad used to take us to dig in old army dumps for bottles (in Manitoba) I do have a post on my blog with alot of Dad's 'treasures' if you want to check it out at Songs From My Journey..June 10th, Tour Tuesday post.
well, I just love old glass, and ink bottles rule !! and crankyputz said it well, your Toronto history lesson covered alot...tho I don't live anywhre near T., I found the article intriguing. Kept drawing me in...
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