Premier Antique Show, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Oct 28-30, 2011

The Premier Antique Show Metro Toronto Convention Center, 255 Front St West on Oct 28th, 29th and 30th 2011 is well stocked with furniture, fine art paintings, fancy dishes, antique tools, sporting goods, coins, candy dispensers, musical, medical, military instruments all laid out on beautiful wooden tables or locked away in wood and glass cabinets, or under lights in glass and steel display cases. Each dealer has invested in professional hangers, lighting fixtures and has suitable furniture for showcasing their wares. Most have illuminated display cases on top of which rests a stack of freshly printed business cards. They’re at this show to sell stuff, and also to network and make connections with pickers, dealers, art directors, props buyers, interior decorators and designers. Read Shopping for Treasures in Toronto Thrift Stores on Squarespace.

Antiques Shows Are Like Museums on Acid

Have you ever been to a really high-end antiques show? It’s kind of overwhelming. There are so many beautiful objects of art, and history from all over the planet all collected together without any context or any attempt at sorting out their individual stories, and so to a logical mind, it’s like a museum on acid. Pick up any one object and somebody will scurry over and shed their knowledge and you can eat it up and keep eating and getting more and more knowledge from every dealer until finally, you’re full. And then you just want out. You have to get away as fast as possible before you throw it all up over somebody.

The advertisement boasts, ‘Decorative arts, Canadiana, vintage designs and accessories, fine jewelry, and objects of art.‘ And that’s accurate. It’s the best stuff on the pro tour; the Premier shows are like the PGA of Antiques. Someday in the near future the miracle of cyber computing will make available an advanced inventory management software that will be able to sort everything out and tell user where to find all the bits and pieces of a particular period, niche or genre of collecting, no matter how small.

Each object is a piece of many stories, and today the premier antique show is a kaleidoscope of high end history and culture that ignores shoes, ships and sealing wax to focus on cabbages and Kings. There are cameo broaches by the bushel, bronze statues, Bakelite telephones, long steel swords, authentic military medals and mint condition model airplanes. The elephants are called pachyderms here. There are fine art paintings and art deco signage and lots of great pottery.. But there are NO antique glass bottles or insulators anywhere - there are however some stoneware jugs and crocks but these are hidden away under the cabinets and chests of drawers, and made visible only to the person who's looking for them, and wants to find them.

Antique Dealers Don’t Like Canadian Pickers TV Show

At one point I had an interesting exchange with some very articulate and knowledgeable people with some interesting insights into the cable TV show craze sweeping North America. The rise of such mercantile concepts as Pawn Stars, and other antiques pickers has TV companies scrambling for new concepts in this niche and many of these folks have had phone calls or emails from one television company or another. And to my surprise I discovered that this crowd likes American Pickers TV show, but does not care much for the Canadian version. They noted how Canadian Pickers only seems to shop at well known antique dealers' houses and shops wherein of course they cannot possible find a bargain in the true spirit of being a picker. And more. These snippets of text I scribbled on my pad,
“Its just a TV show and you can't be a real picker on TV. “
“They don’t rip people off - they get ripped off. They pay too much !“
“And the stuff they buy is what’s hot, not quality. They buy art deco signs and TV antiques, old gas pumps and reconditioned juke boxes. Show pieces. I’d like to see one episode on Georgian furniture and then we’ll see how much they really know.”
“The TV Pickers like to buy show what the young people today call ‘vintage’”
Standex Electronics reed switch is a magnet thingy inside a small vacuum tube.

How To Find the Antique Show in the Metro Convention Center

Heritage Antique Shows www.heritageantiqueshows.com

Premier Antique Show, LIST OF DEALERS

Andrew Zegers, Oshawa, ON
Antique Diamond, Toronto ON
Antique Clocks and More, Toronto, ON
Antiquing with Helen, Toronto ON
Artophile, Port Perry , ON
Barry Ezine, Moffat, ON
Bayshore, Kingston, ON
Bernardi’s Antiques, Toronto, ON
Carmen Berdan, Toronto, ON
Cherry Hill Antique, (CADA), Grafton, ON
Christel Art, Montreal, PQ C.R.
Cornish, Exeter, ON
Cynthia Findlay Antiques, Toronto, ON
Decart Inc, Longueuil, PQ
Daniel Tsang, Montreal, PQ
Farirholme Antiques, Toronto, ON
Fred Louckes, St Catherines, ON
Gallery de Louve, Montreal, PQ
Gary Dawson, Aurora ON
George Brown, Toronto, ON
Glenn Manor Galleries, Shakespeare, ON
Great Britain, Toronto, ON
I Miss You Vintage, Toronto, ON
Inquisitive Antiques, Toronto, ON
J. Taylor Antiques (CADA) Hamilton, ON
Jane Vining, Toronto, ON
Jonny’s Antiques (CADA), Shakespeare, ON
Manley & Sheppard, Toronto, ON
Michael Rowan (CADA) Green River, ON
Paul Murray Fine & Decorative Arts (CADA)
Kitchener, ON Patricia’s Antiques, Cobourg, ON
Paul Braybrook, Sarnia, ON
Peter E. Baker Antiquaire (CADA) Elgin, PQ
Peter Vernon, Toronto, ON
Poirer Schweitzer, Montreal, PQ
Polikers, Greenwood, ON
Richard Fienstead Holder, Toronto, ON
Richard Fulton, Toronto, ON
Royal Antique Rugs, Toronto, ON
T. Donald (Perovic) Antiques, Toronto, ON
Times Past Antiques, Ottawa, ON
Turner Chapel Antiques, Oakville ON

Paul R. Johnston, A Forgotten Canadian Painter?

Harold Barrett, the proprietor of Pickwick’s Choice Antiques at 1698 Queen St West spared some time to chat with me and pose for some photos today. This man is a treasure. My Saturday afternoon visits with this colorful character are the high point of my week. Every encounter is different as Pickwick discusses the fascinating trends in his life – I could start an entire new domain on The Life of a Queen St Antiques Dealer. It actually bothers me that his knowledge is wasted in this dusty shop in the antiques ghetto of Toronto. Phone him at 416 538 4419 and ask him anything!

Harold Barrett advises collectors to ‘buy Canadian art right now!’

But some conditions apply. Namely the modern Canadian artists must have some credentials and some record of their achievements and gallery shows. Where did they go to school? Who taught them? What did the critics think of their work? Did they join a movement?

Pickwick didn’t need any persuading to show me one of his best pieces. It’s hanging on the wall right behind the counter, for sale, a bargain at $695. This piece is something of a scarcity in the Canadian art world because it’s from the son of famous painter…

There's no Wikipedia file for Paul Roderick Johnston - the son of Franz Johnston? I can't find any hard data on this man. Even in Frank Johnston's wiki page there's no mention of any children?

Paul R Johnston is how he signed his name to this oil on canvas, entitled Winter Landscape near Wyebridge. It's 20x16 oil on canvas that was priced at $100 in 1945 - the artist dated his work here by writing the numbers 44 behind his signature. Pickwick believes this was sold at a gallery in downtown Toronto in 1945. 'Do you know how much you could buy with $100 in 1945? he asked me and then replied 'It was three months wages for most people.'

According to Pickwick, Paul Roderick Johnston was the son of Mr. Franz Johnston who lived from 1888-1949. Francis or Franz was an original member of the Group of Seven, but only showed in the Group's first exhibit where he displayed over sixty paintings - more than all the other members.

Franz painted differently than the other Group of Seven members. He liked close-ups that often seemed crowded, and demonstrated incredible prowess in simple landscapes with subtleties like clouds reflecting on water.

Here is Franz Johnston's classic LANDSCAPE AND SKY STUDY signed; inscribed "The Weather Breeder" on the reverse, inscribed title – it was sold in November 2006 at Ritchies, and the estimate reads between $7000 and $10,000, but I don’t know how much was actually paid or if the artwork was even sold. This painting is exceptionally beautiful, in this author's opinion. Dumpdiggers proclaims this to be a terrific investment at $10K and a steal at $7K.

According to Harold Barrett of Pickwick’s Choice the artist known as Paul R. Johnson was the son of this famous Franz Johnson. I have to believe him. The back of the painting proudly declares the artist’s pedigree. *Although if you read the comments below, some say Paul was eager to find success without using his father's name. REMARKS - Bright landscape by son of Famous Franz Johnston – ARCA

What does A.R.C.A. mean? Academie de Royal Canadian Artiste hmmm… no?

According to Charles Moffit of Lilith Galleries.

ARCA stands for Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

In Winter Landscape near Wyebridge, Paul paints like his father - Franz Johnston's style became increasingly more realistic throughout his life, evincing a particular fascination for the qualities of light reflected from snow. Like his father, Paul explored river valleys and detailed the bright blue water bending between snow-laden banks. Like his father, Paul also painted the pastoral countryside around Wyebridge, Ontario.

A reader named Jane Christmas emailed me these images of artwork hanging in her home - see below in the comments, the pedegree. She writes, Hi Rob: I've attached some photos of Paul Rodrik's paintings, and one by his daughter Zo Alexis. Thanks in advance for posting them. Jane

Herb Atkinson plans for Antiques Fair in April

Herb Atkinson manages a not-so-busy antiques store at Queen and Roncesvalles in Toronto, Ont Canada. Sedate Antiques at 1703 Queen St. West specializes in vintage kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The store is stuffed full of bargains, and only lacks customers. But Herb doesn't care - that's because he's really an interior designer, and the antiques store is just a cover, a place to 'store' all his junk.

Yesterday Dumpdiggers learned that Mr. Atkinson will be heading south to Chicago on 25-28 April 2008 to attend The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair™ . This is surprising, because that place/event is huge.

Dumpdiggers asked ‘Why would you shop for bargains there?’ To which Herb replied ‘For me the trip is not about securing merchandise, it’s about gaining wisdom.’ and Herb is already a wise old man. He says, ‘Antique objects are rare and beautiful, but they should be functional too – even when they do nothing.’

Known as the premier antiques fair in the Midwest, the Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair provides collectors, designers and the general public an intimate environment to see a broad range of antiques.

This is the kind of place where experts conduct seminars and dispense their wisdom to thousands of eager listeners. One hundred and thirty antiques and fine art dealers will display the finest in 20th Century Design - Barometers, Ceramics, Coins, Decorative Arts, Folk Art, Furniture, Glass, Jewelry, Paintings, Posters, Prints, Rare Books and Maps, Sculpture, Silver, Textiles, and even Tribal Art will be displayed. This year’s event will also feature the return of dealers from the famed Marche aux Puces in Paris and members of LAPADA, Britain’s hallmark of quality antiques dealers.