Pee Wee

I went to TMR on Tuesday evening but didn’t find too much outside of two cases of old-ish white wine that may or may not still be good. This morning’s run through Rosemont (between St Hubert and Papineau) was fairly productive, though. It was my best Rosemont route in quite some time, this in spite of the weather turning for the worst.

My first finds came from this pile. Someone noticed me looking through the things and told me they belonged to his neighbour who had passed away.

One bag contained a bunch of interesting rocks, shells, and crystals. The pink “egg” in the middle is kind of cool, it’s made of some kind of rock. There’s also a round glass ball and two refracting light crystals.

I like this cute ceramic lamp. It looks fairly old, there’s no markings but the design looks similar to a lot of “Made in Japan” pottery from the 50s. It broke in half at one point but it was glued back together, you can hardly tell it was broke at all. I tested it and it works great.

I also found this automatic wind Bulova watch sans band. It’s a pretty good quality watch and seems to work fine. With a new, scratch free crystal and a band this could probably sell for around 100$. As is, maybe 30$?

There were a few different tarot decks in this pile as well. Unfortunately the cards were out of their package and I couldn’t track them all down – I’m missing 4 from one pack and 2 from another, which from my understanding makes them more or less useless. Oh well! They might still be useful to someone for arts and crafts or something.

Not far away was this pile on St Zotique near Chambord. Someone was clearing out some old stuff for one reason or another.

It was hard work (I didn’t bring my bike trailer today) but I managed to carry home this box of dishes. My apartment can use the glasses but mostly I appreciated the 1970s earth-tone pattern of the dish set that reminds me of my Grandma’s house. That being said I don’t really need any dishes at the moment, I’ll see if any friends can make use of them.

I also found a box full of trophies. Most were either unmarked or from the 80s and 90s. This one was the exception, awarded for a pee wee baseball tournament way back in 1954. It’s made of sturdy metal and has an art deco look to it. I think it’s the oldest sports trophy I’ve seen thus far, it’s interesting to see how the style changes with time.

However, most of what I brought home from this place were old books. These are 1940s children’s books, many of which are pretty religious. They’re all in amazing condition for their age. A few are by Guy Laviolette, who seems to have been a prolific author of these types of books back in the day. Someone wrote their name on all the covers, I blacked them out in the photo for privacy.

There were also these old graphic novels. I did a bit of research and found that the “Herauts” books, which contain a series of different comics from the mid 1940s are actually fairly collectible. The book on the left, for example, recently sold for 38$ on Ebay. Mine might be in a bit better condition too. I didn’t see a price for the one on the right but it’s not in quite as good of shape – it’s missing a few pages at the end. I have another, somewhat more modern one (1950) that’s not pictured as well. I think I’ll put them up as a lot on Ebay, I’ll try to get 70$ for them.

Inside one of the books was this 1949 horoscope. Inside the little pouch on the right was a year long horoscope for a Libra (on the left). It’s a really great piece of ephemera.

This is a cool book, published in 1953 by the Providence Saint Alexis, a former orphanage in Montreal. 1953 happened to be their centennial year and the book goes into length about its history and the figures that shaped it. It’s also a yearbook of sorts, containing group photos (but nothing personal like you’d find in other yearbooks) of the children under their care. It’s pretty interesting, it’s the first time I see anything orphanage-related in the trash. Below are a couple of pictures of the inside – like most of the other books it is in amazing condition.

The last book is a beautiful image and text catechism. If you don’t know what a catechism is, don’t worry, neither did I. I looked it up though and apparently a catechism is a sort of manual of the religion and it’s most often used in the teaching of children.

Inside the catechism were a couple of large black and white photos. The one on the right was taken in front of the Ecole Beril (School) in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The Ecole Beril closed in 2011 due to mold and is slated to be demolished sometime before the new one is built in 2015. On the left is a shrine for Notre-Dame-De-Cap.

That’s it for now! I’m going to the Plateau tonight to see if I can find anything else at the spot on Laval from my last post. I’ll likely go to Villeray tomorrow morning as well, I haven’t been there in quite some time.