Baltimore #9 Printer, Custom Printing Solution for Business People in the 1880s

Let's marvel at the new trend toward making and maintaining office lobby museums.     When culturally clever merchants keep curious collectibles in their office lobbies and meeting rooms, the relics help convince visitors that the host business is historically important to all humanity.

Storied items are key to corporate myth making; venerated implements can spark conversations that cause executives to be reflective and have more pride in the employer and more passion for their work.
Having obsolete industrial machinery on display, or primitive scientific apparatus preserved under glass commemorates decades of experience and symbolizes expertise wrought from empiric success. Such is the case at Lorpon Labels custom label printing in Toronto, Ontario where I found a Baltimore #9 Printer on display in their front office. This is a relic from the 1880s and its still hard at work today, but not as a printing press.

Lorpon Labels Displays a Museum Quality Printing Press that was a Custom Printing Solution in the Late 1800s 

The Baltimore Printer #9 was a 'rail press', which is a modern term used to denote this type of printer where the action centers on a hand lever used to work the press. In their time these were called 'lever presses' and were the simplest printing machines available for purchase. They were deliberately small, cast-iron convenience presses capable of printing no more than a few short lines on a paper card.

At the tail end of the American Industrial Revolution these items were being sold new for one or two dollars each. The printer was always sold as part of a home printers' package that consisted of the press, an ink roller and a couple cans of ink. There was also a pair of tweezers and at least two boxes of type—all in miniature. Blank cards were available everywhere stationary was sold.

Rail presses were produced until early in the twentieth century when they were succeeded by even lighter presses made of tin-plated steel and often quite gaudily decorated.

The new tin presses came complete with lightweight rubber type included in the package - these flimsy rigs were not strong enough to accommodate printers’ lead or steel type. The #9 Printer is an early version of more successful rail press designs that came later - this machine was made of cast iron and came with good solid steel type.

Spawned by America's rising demand for personal calling cards, the rail press was conceived as an alternative to professional printing. The marketing for other rail presses of the age appeals directly to businessmen for printing and numbering tickets, dating documents, and marking crates. By the 1870s these small card presses were made not only for shopkeepers, but for amateur printers and eventually even for children. The tin and rubber stamp models on the market at the beginning of the 20th century probably cost about fifty cents each and did a horrible job printing anything.

J. F. W. Dorman did NOT make Lorpon's antique; Dorman's firm produced a very popular range of hand lever presses that were closely copied by later manufacturers, notably Baumgarten & Co who also resided in Baltimore and also a man named Sigwalt who lived in Chicago. Dorman's Baltimoreans came first and were followed (copied) by Baumgarten's Baltimore No.9 and No.10 presses which are very similar with only minor differences in the casting and paint.

The Baltimore #9 Printer on display at Lorpon Labels was made by Baumgarten & Co who copied the design by J. F. W. Dorman, as per Briar Press Museum website. J. F. W. Dorman started in business in 1866 as a stencil cutter, becoming a supplier of rubber stamps and stationery materials. The company turned to making presses in the 1870’s.

The Dorman hand lever presses were very popular and were copied by several other companies, but the only company that went by the name of Baltimorean, was the original Dorman press. The Dorman factory was lost to the Great Baltimore Fire in 1904. The catastrophe didn't stop this American Captain of Industry however and his name reappears a few years later as the source of an entirely different type of collectible - porcelain license plates.

The Baltimore #9 Printer on display in the office foyer of Lorpon Labels was acquired by the Bob Pontarollo, CEO of the company in an antiques market in the USA for a couple hundred bucks, six years ago. That price was considered a bargain at the time. But what was the original catalog price? There doesn’t seem to be an online reference for the contemporary price of press that I can find today. If you know anything about it, please leave your knowledge in the comment section below.

Dorman’s hand 'Lever Presses' as they were sometimes called at the time were very popular, and were copied closely by several other manufacturers, notably John Sigwalt of Chicago (see his Chicago No.10, which lacks only the rippled ornamentation below its lever) and Baumgarten of Baltimore, who copied nearly every aspect of Dorman’s Baltimore line, including its name. Dorman’s presses go by the name ‘Baltimorean’ while Baumgarten’s use ‘Baltimore.’

The machine was operated by hand lever. This item measures 10 1/2" by 5" by 8" tall is composed primarily of iron but is mounted on a slab of wood.

Make no mistake this invention was not a giant breakthrough by any means except that it brought quality printing within reach of small businesses. With this device, merchants could create their own printed cards and stock labels. A wealthy practitioner could own a Baltimore #9 Printer outright, while a less prosperous business owner may posses only a half or quarter share of such a press. In well connected neighbourhoods such a press may have been jointly owned by a dozen or more businesses and serve the printing needs of a small community. There's an ink roller too or whatever this is also on display on the pedestal tray. The antique is 99% complete I believe; its only missing ink and paper. The name set in type in the chase is that of a woman and her address. Mrs Mary Johnson -- Sycamore Road. The rig could be easily refurbished and come to life again ...

Meanwhile Fortunes Were Being Made In The Newspaper Business 

Friedrich Koenig’s cylinder press debuted in London England in 1812 and was famously employed by The Times of London in 1814. Printing newspapers was where history was happening in the 1800s. American flatbed cylinder machines, following European models, made their appearance in the 1820s and became the workhorses of big city newspaper and large job offices. Type was still supported on a flat bed which had to move back and forth, but the impression cylinder could turn continuously, speeding up the paper feeding operation. Typically, flatbed cylinder presses delivered a thousand sheets per hour, printed on one side only. Koenig’s press was a huge breakthrough, and its impact on society is hard to calculate. From its first appearance in the Napoleonic era, the cylinder press has played a dramatic role in the march of civilization... And in another product category altogether, the little Baltimore #9 Printer was decidedly, a step in the other direction.

Lorpon's Baltimore #9 Printer probably dates from the 1890's, but it could have been made as late as 1910. We know it wasn't made before 1885 because its not a 'Baltimorean #9 Printer'. As noted earlier, the original Baltimoreans were made by J. F. W. Dorman Co., but later Baltimores were produced by Baumgarten & Co., Inc. The castings, decorations and nomenclature were so similar that nowadays, two hundred and thirty years later, only veteran collectors can tell them apart.


Without the accompanying text, could you spot the Baltimorean?

This picture below is from a catalog in the 1890s - sadly, no prices

  Index of Parts

 Baltimore #9 Printer is indeed historic but not a trail blazer by itself.

Below is pg 736 of The Monumental, which outlines the life of John F Wesley Dorman. https://books.google.ca/books?id=8JUZTP4azZUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true 

J. F. W Dorman was a pillar in the community , but not the only printer in Baltimore. Baumgarten & Co. produced a line of presses exactly parallel to Dorman’s, but used the name Baltimore instead of Baltimorean, and made minor changes in the castings.

J.F.W. Dorman was survived by Baumgarten & Co. Inc. The latter's descendants still run the original printing and rubber stamp making business. The photo below is the masthead of their website, Baumgarten.com

By making these hand operated presses for everyday people, both businessmen helped clear a path for the march of humanity. Today we can reflect back on how far we've come from inside the age of digital printing. Today we have full colour presses which are so good our paper currency has to be concocted from synthetic polymers and interspersed with translucent patches encasing magnetic stripes to deter counterfeiters.

On Collecting Toronto Wrestling Posters, Local Wrestler Memorabilia

On Saturday night, Oct 1st 2016, Dumpdiggers attended an historic sporting event at the Super Wonder Gallery in Toronto.

In this wide open art gallery near Bloor and Ossington, I watched Hogtown Wrestling in Toronto debut in front of about two hundred excited spectators. I marveled at the energy in the room, the number of pretty girls cheering the wrestlers, and the quality of these athletes and their showmanship and the believe-ability of each performance. And I saw something else there too...

Dumpdiggers discovered heaps of collectible merchandise available for sale at the front of the venue. And after I pondered the treasures for a minute, I purchased some local Toronto wrestling posters because I was already infected with stories, the genre and the mise en scene of the historic occasion.

I paid three bucks each for two wrestling posters that were marked with the name of the previous wrestling league; VCW or Victory Commonwealth Wrestling. Click the pics and you can see the poster is signed by Nikolai Volkoff, the wrestler who was visiting from Russia. The man who sold me the posters informed me that Nikolai asked to sign the posters - it was his idea. He said that's how its done in Russia, and he's signs local match posters all over the world.I didn't think to ask if he'd won or lost the match? Perhaps someone could tell me in the comments?

This image on Twitter shows the new banners for Hogtown Wrestling coming fresh out of the printer at a Toronto event signage company, Sign Source Solution.

This is Toronto local wrestling kitsch, and it’s different from the mainstream professional wrestling merchandise because its just one step above ‘homemade’ and is issued in very limited quantities. I suppose if these items were pieces of wooden furniture they might be considered primitives. The same rules apply; the material made by these amateur artists is real and genuine and it looks good in your house. In this case, the two posters I purchased will line a closet where I keep gear near the front door, a man cave cubicle. I reckon the wallpaper job I'm doing there will survive me and endure for many decades as an impressive shrine to these local heroes.

The local 'live wrestling' event posters and artwork on DVD box covers are made by promoters for small shows in downtown gymnasiums and fitness clubs, but what makes it valuable? Well to be fair, it really isn't that valuable today, however if one of these posters glimpses a movie star at the very beginning of his or her career...  That is just one way this merchandise can accrue value.

Wrestling posters can increase in 'value', both monetary and cultural worth, when they have,

1. engaging artwork in an aesthetically pleasing layout that captures wrestling fans’ minds and holds their attention long enough for them to read performer’s names and absorb story fragments presented on the page
2. unique points of interest - i.e. are emblazoned with cheap prices, antiquated logos, phrases or long obsolete route map directions; such parchments can find other paraphernalia collectors who like to contrast present times with historic conditions.
3. signatures of the wrestlers.
4. commemorate historic events. There’s more than one WrestleMania X7 poster and even some ticket stubs available on eBay, and there will always be a demand for more of anything related to that pinnacle event. Lots of historical significance for wrestling fans; that occasion is considered by some to be Wrestlemania’s greatest show (because the main event was a No Disqualification match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock for the WWF Championship. The undercard included Triple H versus The Undertaker, the second Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWF Tag Team Championship and a Street Fight between Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon).  Having a relic from that event in your collection is a solid connection to greatness.
5. have compelling stories. A good poster can be filled with unknown or long-since retired wrestlers and still have people asking ‘what happened?’ That's the power of a good story; when a poster can depict an archetypal hero in a match with a loathsome villain, it piques curiosity.

From what I know about collecting merchandise in general and all I know about Hogtown Wrestling specifically, I’m thinking some of the material could be a good investment. Look here at this marvelous collectible celebrating a Toronto mayor Rob Ford look alike wrestler who offered another interesting perspective (satire) on local politics in 2014.

Could one of these performers go on to become a big star like The Rock? or maybe enter politics like Jesse the Body Ventura?  Buying merchandise with their names and personas is like making a small bet on their success.

We all remember holding or seeing the Wayne Gretzky rookie card before it was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I hid one in my childhood bedroom because my uncle or maybe it was my Grampa told me that he was a 'once in a generation player'. Of course I can’t find that blasted card now, and that causes me great angst, and so its with the same apprehension that I walk by these tables full of athletic memorabilia and wonder about future demand for such niche stories and images, some signed by the performers, like the colourful character seen below; The Hacker meets his fans in person at each show to autograph posters and photographs.

The Hacker won his match against Nick Watts, whom you can see wrestling Jim Nye the Science Guy above left. There were a lot of people cheering The Hacker's victory over Nick Watts and he was treated like a real celebrity when he appeared out front to sign autographs. This charismatic good guy wrestler has a devoted fan base that wears his signature broken glasses at shows. I'm sure the people who write these stories are aware of his growing influence and will arrange his matches in such a way that he rises higher in the rankings. His character is riding high on gimmicks that have impacted the audience and given them something to remember - he becomes someone to cheer for, someone to care about.

The Hacker's young fans will tell you the future of Hogtown Wrestling in Toronto is very bright.

Is this the start of a Golden Age of local wrestling in Toronto, Canada?

Let’s consider the 1980s wrestling 'boom' in the USA; the popularity of professional wrestling exploded in the 1980s due to the rise of pay-per-view and cable television syndication deals alongside the acquisitions and maneuverings of two notable promoters. Here in Toronto, Hogtown Wrestling has a Rogers TV deal and is working on improving their websites to carry short videos of individual matches. The wrestlers themselves are sharpening their social media skills to better push content on the website and promote their own appearance in the ring.

The Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1980s started when Vince McMahon signed AWA superstar Hulk Hogan to crown his enterprise 1984. To play Hogan's nemesis, he signed talents including World Championship Wrestling heel "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and AWA manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.  My favourite was Hacksaw Jim Duggan who carried a sawed off 2x4 with him and would use it to clobber people, which I knew couldn't possibly be allowed in the rules, but I liked Hacksaw Jim Duggan anyway because he walked the fine line between loved and hated by the masses. You can see him squaring off with Roddy Piper in this DVD box cover on the left.Click the pic to see the full sized image. The DVD was for sale for five dollars which was the top end price for all the material on the table.

Today you can buy all manner of Wrestlemania collectibles on eBay and most have Roman numerals so long it would take me a minute to work out the number. The first Wrestlemania was 1984 and WrestleMania VI on April 1, 1990, is acknowledged as the end of the 1980s wrestling boom. The event saw one of the last WWF appearances of André the Giant. Anything connected to those first six shows are solid gold today.

I believe the commercial success of The Wrestler movie also helped wrestling get started again in Toronto. The film received universal critical acclaim and won the Golden Lion Award in the 2008 Venice Film Festival in August.  I mention this because it was the hero's story that captivated audiences and not the wrestling really, although that was excellent.  And this is what I see occurring in this league and other sports theatre operations in the city - its a new and wonderful place to tell poignant stories about ourselves. And it spawns a myriad of collectibles to chronicle our times.

Lessons in Identifying Collectible Golf

Dumpdiggers often find old golf balls, wooden golf course tees and other golf related items that were disposed of decades ago. Wood and metal clubs, hats, bags, pennants and jackets don't survive the ravages of time, but golf balls do (to some extent) and so do metal trophies, pins, metal badges, ceramic cups and golf club heads. So I thought perhaps the blog could use an brief overview of the golf collecting niche.

Specifically golf clubs because earlier this year I found some vintage clubs and I picked them up because the club heads were all wood and the faces were all hand painted. Yes they have metal shafts and plastic buttons on the end and I know they're junk but this prompted me to look deeper into the sport. These clubs are neat and have a great feel The colours all have some meaning I'm sure, besides pinpointing the sweet spot.

Bradlee Ryall, a real life golf pro and the closest thing I know to a celebrity golfer, fell in love with these old clubs right away, but even he couldn't tell me the meanings of the different colours. Bradlee teaches golf lessons west of Toronto at six different Kaneff golf courses.  He offered me what I paid but I told him to keep them safe for the time being while I do some research. I let him use the lot as decorations for the walls of his man cave at his home. 

Lessons in collecting golf

If you asked golfers where the game originated, most would tell you the sport was invented by Scottish shepherds who would hit balls (stones) with sticks as they grazed flocks of sheep in the highlands. However, there is reason to believe the rudiments of the game evolved from a French sporting activity called Chole, or "mail a la chicane". This game was mentioned for the first time in 1261 in a poem from the medieval Flemish poet Jacob van Maerlant. The game he described was played with curbed wooden clubs and spherical wooden balls in the streets, in the churchyards and on the open fields in or around the towns. Regardless of where it originated, the game evolved for a few centuries in Scotland before the first Open Championship in 1860, known in the U.S. as the first ‘British Open’.  

That year, 1860 is the date many of the sport's chroniclers pinpoint as the dawn of modern golf. From a digger's perspective it helps to know that date, as its also demarcation line between seriously antique and mythic golf collectibles. With few exceptions, items related the sport that were created and used before 1860 might as well be made of solid gold as they have such incredible value to collectors.

How do you know the real value of things? The answer more and more often is eBay. What did the last item like that sell for? Funny thing is if you go online and ‘check prices’ anywhere except eBay the author or website always tries to foist their price guide on you which in my experience is pretty much based entirely on wishful thinking. The real price guides are on eBay and they’re rock bottom. Sorry Mr Fureniac

 Dumpdiggers' History of Golf 

Our favourite origin story dates back to The Hundred Years War when Scottish infantry aiding French forces against the English at the Siege of Baugé -1421 were introduced to the game of Chole (a game that is still played today in parts of France and Flanders, through small towns and on fresh cleared fields after harvest). Three men at arms in particular, Hugh Kennedy, Robert Stewart and John Smale are credited with bringing the game back to Scotland. Three decades later in 1457, the sport of golf, (along with football) was banned by the Scots Parliament of James II to preserve the population's interest and skills of archery. Golf is prohibited on Sundays because it has interfered with military training for the wars against the English. Twelve years later in 1470 the ban on golf is reaffirmed by the Parliament of James III. And in 1491 the parliament’s ban on golf is again reaffirmed, this time under James IV.  So its hard to believe that the sport ever took hold in the country, but then of course whenever a government tries to ban something it often just makes it more popular!

Collecting Antique Golf Clubs 

According to golf antiques websites that the earliest clubs still in existence today are from the 17th century, and these are all museum pieces. Clubs from the 18th and early 19th centuries occasionally make their way into private collections. though, invoke the memory of golf’s first stars, men such as Allan Robertson, a St Andrews golfer who died in 1859.

The clubs made from 1860 onward are the ones most collectors trouble themselves with. This is also when some standardization of clubs began. In those days, the heads of Douglas McEwan golf clubs (also sold as D. McEwan & Son) were made of beech while the shafts were fashioned from hickory, a wood whose elasticity allowed for the maximization of torque in a swing. Prior to that, most club heads were made of thorn wood or fruitwood and were fixed to ash shafts.
 
At a recent auction sale in the UK, the Jeffery B. Ellis Antique Golf Club Collection was sold (by Sotheby's) for $2,166,210, the highest total for a golf memorabilia collection yet recorded.  In that massive hoard of golf clubs, collected from all over the world, there were many one-of-a-kind drivers, duffers and cleeks.

The word cleek is purely Scottish – it means to suddenly grasp or clutch something (like a golf club), and has lent its name to pot hangers in Scottish kitchens and to a particular type of iron golf club with a thin face and little or no slope. 

To the right is a Square Toe Club, or it could be called a 'square toe light iron'. It was fashioned circa 1600s by an unknown maker. The sale price for this club alone was $151,000.  Mr. Ellis had written in the catalogue that this was, The oldest club in the sale and one of the dozen surviving iron heads from the 17th century. It turned out to be the second-most-expensive item in the auction, behind the 18th-century Andrew Dickson long-nosed putter which fetched $181,000.

When it comes to buying antique golf clubs, don't be fooled into thinking that wooden shafts are sure to be worth the price. Golf collectors will tell you that fewer than ten percent of all wooden antique golf clubs for sale in the shops have collectible value beyond being simply decorative items for a man cave or sports bar. The majority of the vintage or antique clubs that you will find at yard sales or on eBay are common golf clubs with very little value.

The clubs I bought at the sale are as common as they come and nearly worthless. During the early to mid 1900s, as golf became more popular, inexpensive golf clubs were mass produced by companies such as Wilson, Spalding, Burke, MacGregor, Kroydon and many more.

Common golf clubs can be identified by traits such as,
• Aluminum caps on the end of the handles
• Nickel, chromed or stainless steel heads
• Dots, lines, hyphens or other face scorings
• Stamps on the back for yard ranges
and they often had encouraging phrases printed on the back such as accurate, superior, aim-rite and other common sounding names

Common vintage golf clubs in today's market usually sell for between $10 and $20 bucks. The same club fifteen years ago could have been worth $40 or $50. The demand was higher back then, especially with foreign buyers. But the internet brought a flood of antique golf clubs to the market, where the demand has steadily decreased over the last decade. Serious collectors and antique dealers have no interest in common vintage golf clubs. They are only interested in the rare and hard-to-find golf clubs. 

How to recognize rare golf clubs?

Knowing how to spot rare golf clubs takes a lot of training and to get good you need a lifetime of golf lore. But some basic item traits to consider and seek out would be,
• Unusual head shapes and wood heads
• No face markings or unusual face markings
• Unusual patented features for player's improvements
• Wood clubs with thick, curved oval necks covered with 4 to 5 inches of string whipping
• Smooth face irons made by golf club makers such as Army & Navy, Dunn, Forgan, Gray, White, Carrick and Anderson
• Deep groove wood shaft clubs called rakes or waterfalls.
Rare vintage golf clubs have uncommon patents or features and were made in limited quantities that set them apart from the mass produced common clubs.

To the right is a rare Auchterlonie Jigger from St Andrews Scotland.Hickory shafted with its original grip.  The baskstory is all about the maker Tom Auchterlonie, using the Thomas Stewart of St. Andrews pipe as a cleekmark. Tom was born in 1879 and was famous for making wooden putters - he made wooden putters well into the 1920s. Another notable putter from his workshop is the prism-shaped "Holing Out" model. The reason this club is so precious is because Auchterlonie was known for his putters, not his jiggers and so the club is very rare, but of course it would take an expert to know such things.

Here is a 1910 patent application for what to me looks like a modern golf club.

 To the most obsessed golf nuts, even patent applications are collectible.

Digging Story: Ace Hits Stoneware, James Ryder Ginger Beer Bottle from Guelph

When I saw Ace post this image of a James Ryder Ginger Beer from Guelph on Flickr, I knew there had to be a backstory, and so I asked him for more narrative in the comments.  Two weeks later, on a cold Sunday afternoon in May 2016, Ace replied to my request in an email.

But first, on his original Flickr post, Ace wrote, "always nice when you can find an old ginger beer bottle from your hometown.
____Ye Olde English____
 ___Stone Ginger Beer___ 
_______Made By_______ 
_____James Ryder______ 
Mineral Water Manufacturer 
____Guelph, Ontario_____ 
___This Bottle Must Be___ 
__Returned Or Paid For__

Category: 4 Rare "

The same James Ryder Ginger Beer bottle is in the Guelph Museum and is described in their website archives as "Stoneware ginger beer bottle. Glazed, off-white and gold neck, black label, ceramic stopper with rubber ring attached to neck by wire. "James Ryder, Mineral Water Manufacturer". Stamped: "Ye Olde English Stone Ginger Beer". They do not attempt to date the piece.

Also present in the Guelph Museum are two clear glass bottles that hold 8 fluid ounces each. One is embossed "Ryder's High Class Mineral Waters, GUELPH" on the front. It also has an image of "Conveyor Belt with a Wheel". Bottle made in a mold between the years 1915 to 1925.  The other clear glass bottle is also embossed with the same lettering but features a picture of "a well with a pulley system".

While scouring the online archives in Guelph for anything know about James Ryder, I did discover his name among the membership rolls in the Masonic Lodge and we know he was a benefactor or at least had some affiliation with the Salvation Army, cause his name is in a booklet from the 1920s. Perhaps I could have found out more. Maybe a reader will email me more information?

Ace emailed me this morning and wrote,

Here's the story for the James Ryder bottle, I was walking by a Guelph construction site and noticed some bottles lying around and one of the construction workers didn't seem to mind if I stopped by after hours to look around. When I came back in the evening I noticed the hole the backhoe had been digging earlier was mostly filled in again but there was one spot I could still dig myself. I dug up many junk bottles and was about to give up when I noticed a white stopper sticking out the side of the hill, I gently poked at it and it fell out and there appeared to be a top of a ginger beer bottle lying its side but I figured it probably wasn't intact so I didn't get my hopes up. I carefully dug it out and turned it over and to my surprise it was a James Ryder Ginger Beer bottle from Guelph and in one piece. I continued to dig a little longer for more good stuff but got nothing but junk. The hole has now been filled in again so I'm lucky to have at least found one good bottle. - Ace from Guelph

2016 Toronto Bottle Show, Sunday April 17th at Pickering Recreation Complex

The 22nd Toronto Bottle Show and Sale hosted by the Four Seasons Bottle Collectors Club was held at the Pickering Recreation Complex again, and once again this year the show was really well attended by the public. Admin reports that 263 people paid the five-dollar entrance fee, and the annual event was real busy from the moment the doors opened at 10am, right up until 1pm  or thereabouts when it slowed down somewhat, and it was all over by three.
With 65 dealer tables this is Canada's biggest bottle show offering a huge selection of antique bottles, pottery and related collectibles for sale. The poster says “No crafts, reproductions or early admission.” But there are some reproductions. Some reproductions are historic in their own right, and I'll point them out in this post.

I arrived at the venue approx ten minutes before the doors opened, and couldn’t find a parking spot in the adjacent lot, so I had to park across the street. This is the line up outside at 9:50 am. It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day and the first nice Sunday we've had in a while - a great day for a bottle show.
I got this photo outside the front entrance of the hall – the show needs better signage. Click the pics below for a closer look. All the images expand.

If one day I win some money in the lottery I will come to the next Toronto Bottle Show and spend $50,000 buying the single nicest piece from each of the sixty five dealers present. And so when i ask vendors to hold up their best item, this is what I'm thinking; i wonder 'would that collectible stand the test of time?'

Sean Murphy held up his new favourite squat soda water bottle, JAMES CORDERY / LONDON. This one dates from 1891 to 1894. Sean has been divesting of crocks and bottles to focus on acquiring the best Ontario sodas. There are about ten really hard to find Ontario squat sodas dating from the middle to late 1800s that he doesn't already have, and for which he keeps an eye peeled at every show he attends. This is a smart quest. Sean has set an achievable goal to assemble an historically significant collection.

What flavour was the soda pop in this small bottle? That is a question for the ages; in truth it could have held any flavour, or many flavours – like so many other squat sodas there's no clue to the maker's flavour on the glass. Period advertising is often the only way modern collectors can know the historic producer's signature blends.  
 

Above is Sam Stuart with a large collection of relics from the Ontario Forest Board. Not much to say about Sam here except that he was selling a rock for $25 because it was in fact a 10,000 year old hand tool.  Sure I got a picture and I could put it here, but it just looks like a rock. See the rock that is in fact a 10,000 year old hand tool on Flickr.

Scott Jordan an Paul Marchand with a drugstore sign from the early 1900s advertising Dr. Thomas Eclectic Oil which I wrote about here in 2008, remarking on its popularity as a found antique (while reminding readers that its pretty much worthless as a collectible). Unlike the actual bottle, a well preserved drugstore sign advertising the product could be quite valuable. Sadly I neglected to record their price at the show - it was just held up on a whim for the camera.

These guys are from Ottawa and they are pillars of the Eastern Ontario bottle collecting community and long standing members of the the Bytown Bottle Collectors club who are having a show next week, April 24th 2016 in Ottawa. This show is only ten percent smaller than the Toronto show on paper. The Four Seasons Show in Pickering has sixty five tables and Ottawa has only sixty.

These guys always have really old, highly obscure and super interesting medicines which is what Scott collects. Look here at the lovely paper label amber Ryckman's Kootenay Cure, which is very much like Dr Thomas Eclectic Oil in that it's a patent medicine, also known as a nostrum (from the Latin nostrum remedium, or "our remedy") is a commercial product advertised (usually heavily) as a purported over-the-counter medicine, without regard to its effectiveness.

Ryckman’s Kootenay Cure was manufactured in the mid-1890s by a Member of Parliament with mining interests in the Illecillewaet district southeast of Revelstoke. Samuel Shobal Ryckman (1849-1929) was one of several MPs drawn to the Kootenay in 1892. He said that on a visit to one of his gold mining claims near the headwaters of the Incomappleux River, an old miner gave him a recipe for a rheumatism cure. The potion, which also cured blindness, deafness, indigestion, gout, eczema, skin disease, hives, sores, liver and kidney disorders was made from plants found in the area. Soon the S.S. Ryckman Medicine Co. was cranking out cases of the Kootenay Cure, and filling newspapers with testimonials about its amazing properties. It sold for $1 per bottle, or a half dozen bottles for five dollars. Scott Jordan was asking $125 for the well preserved specimen today.
 
John Dunbar holds up a lovely Dutch onion.

John Dunbar has been collecting since he was kid and one of his oldest and most prized possessions is this dark green onion bottle. John acquired the collectible from a frequent visitor to Surinam. It would have had a cork and lead foil at one time, and contained French or German wine on its voyage south - depending on the company it could have been refilled with rum for a return voyage. 

Early in the day I encountered Janet Gilbert and her husband Mark Gilbert who came seeking bottles, jugs and crocks with the name 'Swan' for the creation of a family museum.

They had pics of antiques they knew existed, and so  they asked dealers 'have you seen these items?'

The family museum project is to be shared with Cluff heritage so if you have any leads on either name items, Janet is buying.  We know Swan Bros were grocers in Toronto who left their name on some jugs and crocks. Some history appears on online at Worthpoint.

Was Henry Swan one of the Canadians who marched to Fort Erie to put down the Fenians? 

Glen Moorhouse was making coffees in the snack bar when Janet Gilbert bought me a free cup to thank me for replying to her email last summer wherein I put her in touch with the Four Seasons community. That action and her subsequent follow-ups with club members led to her appearing today and buying her name sake antiques.  

Periodically throughout the five hour long event there are random draws for Show Money which is dispensed to non-members to spend wherever they please. I dream about winning and look for my favourite objects on every table..

The town of Port Perry came up in conversation again as I interviewed Rick Adams and his wife Gail who drove down from Huronia, all the way down to Pickering to showcase Ontario heritage with stoneware items like this uniquely misshapen giant six gallon pickle crock. Click the pics - they expand!
 
The piece is stamped  S. SKINNER & CO /  PICTON C.W.  - the C.W stands for Canada West and that's what makes it so darn historic and valuable to collectors. That means it was made before Confederation in 1867 which is when the province of Upper Canada was renamed Ontario precisely because it would be too confusing to have the province of Upper Canada or Canada West occupying the bottom middle of a nation called Canada.

Saving history - this errant piece of Ontario pottery was discovered in Alberta a few decades ago, and Rick had to pay extra to ship it back to its home province. As for the lid... Was there ever a lid? Would it be also be misshapen like the crock? Did it have a lip and make a seal?  The item is really sturdy and weighs over ten pounds. Rick was asking $1500.


Douglas Dopko was at the 2016 show selling his digger stash - on the table were over a hundred bottles of every description, most of which he had dug up himself in old dumps as a young man.

These vessels on his table were otherwise contained in four heavy Tupperware containers behind him, and his objective was to bring home lighter crates.  By the time I arrived at his table, the pair of veteran diggers had already sold $200 worth of stuff and every piece is a story. They told me about the biggest dump they ever encountered, a ravine dump between two farms they picked through in the 1970s and early 1980s.

After some scouting around in their glass, I found the best piece on their table was not a dug item at all but rather this Captain Morgan Gold Label Rum bottle which has the date on which it was consumed, Friday the 13th of February 1952 scrawled on its paper label. That was a rum day for someone.



Bob Harris, always a highlight of my report, lit up the entire 2016 show with his antique coal oil lanterns. 

Update on Bob - right after last year's event, when I teased him in my Dumpdiggers report about bringing a tackle box full of antique fishing lures to a bottle show – he tells me he sold everything inside and including the tackle box just a few days later. I’d like to believe it was because it was advertised so well in the Dumpdiggers' 2015 Toronto Bottle Show blog post which features him holding up that smashed tackle box, but we'll probably never know.

This year Bob and his wife brought kerosene lamps, or are they 'coal oil lamps'? The oldest ones used whale oil I suppose, but of course Bob didn’t have any that ancient. These are from the last great age of oil lanterns when they were mass produced glass and metal fixtures in the house, present in every room, and in every dept store home furnishings catalog.  

The models all had names like Princess Feather and Bullseye and Canadian Drapes. Interesting enough to send me on a research binge for a few minutes is that 'Princess Feather' is a respected design theme its own right. Its a design motif most present in quilting. I'm going to do something I never do in this post and that's borrow an image from another blog. The image to the left is from Karen's Quilting blog' and in her write up she refers to circles made by connecting eight 'princess feathers' around a central flower blossom. So the takeaway for me is that a 'princess feather' is an actual 'swoosh' feather design that may or may not be derived from a feather on a Heraldic banner.  At any rate what we see on Bob's lantern below is a much more exaggerated swoosh. The princess feather below is a vertical feather curl almost like a fiddle head.

Bob tells me the oldest Princess Feather kerosene lamps didn’t have the central flower blossoms you see on reproductions. To the right is a repro that is a valuable antique in its own right. The piece is over sixty years old, still functions and is a beautiful decorative furnishing that looks great by the window.

The lanterns came in five different sizes and Bob had three sizes of Canadian Drapes oil lamp varietals, including the smallest which he was proud to report still has its original chimney, or at least a glass chimney that fits the lamp base which he identified as 'vintage' by its peculiar style of decorative crenelations at the top of the chimney, see below.So after all that I asked, ‘Bob when did they stop making these things?’ And he said ‘They’re still making them! You can buy a new one today in Walmart’, which I guess speaks to the efficacy of the design. Although these items on the Harris table were priced to sell at between $100 to $150, I think he went home with most of them. But who knows, it doesn’t mean they wont sell later!

Tim Maitland and his father Jim Maitland almost always have the biggest milk bottle spread of the show with hundreds of vintage silkscreen vessels set out in front of them at their table.

But today Tim held up a 16oz cobalt blue 'coffin poison' bottle marked POISON / CARBOLIC ACID / USE WITH CAUTION instead of a rare dairy bottle.
 
The letters 'OCP' embossed on the bottom denote the vessel belonging to, or originating from (or as being subjected to legislation and enforcement governed by) the Ontario College of Pharmacy. 
 
Carbolic Acid poisons resulted directly from the efforts of the Ontario College of Pharmacy (OCP) to oversee the sale of that chemical. Around 1910-12, it became provincial policy, as per the regulatory initiatives of the OCP, that Ontario pharmacists had to put up carbolic acid in these specially designed bottles. They come in 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 16-ounce sizes. Besides being embossed with "Carbolic Acid" on their fronts, they also have "O.C.P." (for Ontario College of Pharmacy) embossed on their bases. Other provincial pharmacy boards in Canada also adopted their official use. So what the heck do people do with carbolic acid anyway? The nearest I can figure is that it was a common antiseptic and was used in the fight against dysentery and infection in hospitals and clinics. 

John Findlay brought some Brewerainia to the bottle show. He chose to hold up a hard to find Dawes Black Horse Ale and Porter tavern sign. The image on this sign is one of three different scenes known to exist in this size / format and examples of all three are on display in the Black Horse museum in Lachine, Quebec. When we chatted at the show, John mentioned that he's heard rumours of another (fourth) scene that exists. "At this stage, I believe it to be nothing more than a rumour. None of the numerous breweriana collectors and dealers that I've spoken with over the years are aware of it." John said, "If, however, a fourth scene does exist, I know for a fact that an example of it is NOT on display at the museum and, to the best of my knowledge, it doesn't appear in any online catalogues. If it does exist," John concluded, "it would be a truly rare piece and I would love to see it!"

Tavern signage also includes glass signs (signs made of glass) and grocery store posters. But the classic tavern sign that John was holding was made for hanging in establishments selling Black Horse beer. It would have been prominently displayed to impart the brand name and logo to induce consumers to order the product. $400 

Dressed in orange and surrounded by orange collectibles were Michael Rossman and his wife Janice. They're the 'Orange Crush couple', and I have written about him and his valuable book Orange Crush - Krinkly to Mae West at least once before. Here's a link to the 2011 Toronto bottle show where you can see his offerings on display. The couple didn’t bring any Crush bottles this year; they only brought Crush paraphernalia and Michael's $45 book. Already before i arrived at their table he'd sold three copies and some keepsakes. 

The couple also brought early carrying cases and serving trays and period advertising under glass. They also had a superb six glass set of Orange Crush drinking glasses from the 1960s.  I should have bought that Orange Crush Frisbee for $20 - its retro cool.  

Gary Spicer is 25 years a diver. He started in the St. Lawrence when it was so murky you couldn’t see twelve feet in front of you. Now with Zebra Mussels its clear as day down there apparently, but there's nothing left to find. Gary had two valuable pieces perched precariously at the top of his display. Beer bottle collectors were all stopping by to gaze at the stone vessel that dated from around 1853, and for which he was asking $850. In the photo above Gary holds his STARR BROTHERS / BROCKVILLE soda that dates from between 1860 - 1872. This vessel, he claims is the only known example, and Gary is an expert on bottles and relics from Eastern Ontario. He has been known to speak to citizenry about local bottles that are the legacy of their commercial trade. In 2013 he was featured in a local newspaper celebrating Brockville's heritage

Terry Matz is Canada's foremost torpedo bottle collector, but this year he chose to display a teapot. Near the end of the day I drifted over to Terry’s table to see what he'd brought for me, and same as last year he had a rare item glazed in either Rockingham or Bennington that was a museum quality piece.
 
Indeed, Terry's teapot is similar to a piece found in the Royal Ontario Museum which they describe as "A variant form, the unmarked beaver and maple leaf teapot here does not conform to any excavated sherd or lids, though the piece as a whole is remarkable similar. While it could be a style of the post-1883 period, its relative heaviness and clumsiness suggest its an earlier Welding version (c. 1875 - 1880) and a predecessor of the excavated form. Canadiana R.O.M."  And same as previous years this item was not for sale - Terry was offering his insights on the historically significant item as gift to knowledge seekers and Dumpdiggers blog readers.
 
Ron Demoor came in from Delhi Ontario to pick up a very special eight sided cobalt blue pint

Over the years I've covered Ron's table and shown his Sproatt torpedos, and even singled him out as having the most valuable bottles at the show. 

This year he was a buyer. He bought the eight panel cobalt blue soda seen left that was made between the years 1850 and 1862 - Henry Sproat(t) is listed in the red book as 'Ginger beer maker' . You can gaze upon the H SPROAT torpedo soda bottle here in Tim Braithwaite's collection courtesy of Early Canadian Bottle Works, Darren's website .

The oldest or first H. Sproatt Toronto bottles have only one (T) in Sproat. This is found on the quarts, Squat pints and torpedo bottles. The quarts and squat H. Sproat bottles all have graphite pontil marks on the bottom of the bottles. The smooth base ones have the corrected H. Sproatt and have a smooth base. This was a spelling mistake by Lockport, N.Y. glassworks that made these bottle.

I ventured to guess the piece was worth about $2000 and Ron nodded, but I'm not sure he heard me or understood that I was asking. or now that I think on it, its more likely doesn't want to make public exactly what he'd just paid for the piece.

Below is Tom Hollman and Ross Wainscott sitting behind a table full of fruit sealers.

Tom had a good show selling Beavers and other sealers. Here he is holding his rare plum coloured The Burlington with its matching plum coloured lid for $675 bucks - a steal for this rarest shade of rare preserving jar.

The 2016 Toronto Bottle Show was great fun as always and thanks for everyone who deigned to pose for my camera. 

At the end of the show I conscripted Carl Parsons and a perfect stranger to pose beside the front entrance sign. The pic didn't really turn out the way I wanted; it didn't lead, but its a good image for the close. Thanks all - Good work Club Members.