Camera shy

I haven’t posted much recently, I know. Finds have been a bit slow but I’ve also been going out with friends on occasion. For whatever reason when I go out with others my focus on the blog gets disrupted. I think it’s because I’m a bit camera shy and my natural inclination is to avoid posting photos with myself or my friends in them. It’s a fear of being judged I suppose, something I’ve fought with a lot over the years. I’ll try to meditate on this, maybe some more people-full posts are on their way.

Yesterday was a holiday (Canadian Thanksgiving). The streets were very quiet but the garbage was still due to be collected. In the morning I found this porcelain hanging lamp fixture in Outremont. It was near an antique / junk shop that’s in the process of closing down, perhaps they were the ones who threw it out. Other than a small chip on the opposite side it’s in great shape. It looks like a well designed piece though I didn’t see any maker’s marks. It’s also pretty heavy, fortunately it wasn’t too far from home.

In the evening I explored the western section of the Plateau. I came across a spot on Waverly which has had some almost-interesting trash recently and saw a couple of closed boxes. I opened them up, as I do, and found a haul of…

…never opened Avon products from the 70s. Inside the boxes are colognes, after-shaves, perfumes, novelty soaps, hand lotions, hair cream and powders, many with novelty bottles (some of which I set up for display). The bottles are pretty cool in a kitchsy sort of way. I bet some of the product, especially the after-shaves and colognes, are still good too.

These have some collectors value. On Ebay these seem to sell for 2-13$ a piece, with the moose and the “10 point buck” being on the higher end. Some sellers have them up for more, but while they do occasionally sell for that price you’d need to have a lot of storage space where they can sit in the meantime, which I don’t have. I also just don’t have the patience. I’ll probably end up putting them up on Ebay as a lot. There are 32 in total, if I put them up for an average of 2$ a pop they should sell relatively quickly and make me around 60$ after fees.

If anyone local has any interest let me know, I’d give a bit of a discount (50$ total?) since you’d be saving me the effort of taking photos, packing, shipping and so on.

I found these recorders on Friday evening during my tour of Rosemont (in between Iberville and Pie-X). In the same pile I found some 90s era film cameras, which aren’t worth much, and also some pieces of photo equipment which were mildly valuable. In the same spot the week before I found a few Polaroid cameras but never got around to posting them.

I’ve been pretty lazy with putting things on Ebay recently but yesterday I spent some time and got some listings up, many of which was the camera equipment I found above. Ebay sales have been a bit slow recently, though I did sell these blue and white ceramic dogs I found in TMR for 80$. I’m pretty happy about that!

I sorted through the last of the old books I found a few weeks ago and picked out a few favourites. At the top left is a 1943 book about St Joseph’s Oratory. It was published six years after Brother Andre died and before the oratory as we know it today was completed. I’m related somehow to Brother Andre (through my Bessette side) so I find anything related to him or the oratory to be fairly interesting.

There’s also a 1956 guide to a Montreal Agricultural fair. a 1950s-era guide detailing the [roduction of Shur-gain foods, and a little book published by the CCF in the mid-fourties. The CCF, or the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a left-wing political party in Canada before 1961 when it merged with the CLC (Canadian Labour Congress) to become the NDP. I like finding old political ephemera as well.

(FYI: There’s a button you can click on the bottom right of the gallery screen if you want to see the pictures closer up!)

I also saved this 1966 yearbook from the Presentation de Marie school in Granby (a town close to Montreal). It was a all-girls high school run by the church, meaning that all the teachers were nuns. It’s interesting that most of the girls listed “efficient secretary” or “efficient nurse” as their career aspiration. A pretty cool piece of history, that’s for sure.

That’s all for now. Tonight I’m scheduled to go to the eastern section of the Plateau, though I’m a bit bored of that to be honest. I’ll see if there are any alternate Tuesday evening routes, maybe there’ll be one in Cote des Neiges that I could go to. I’ll let you know how that goes.