Challenger

On Friday I elected to check out a morning trash pickup in Rosemont. I came away with a big haul, one big enough that I had to make a special trip to my friend’s shed just to find a place for it all. This spot on 7th Av was a major culprit. When I first saw it I expected the pile to be mostly renovation debris; however, further inspection proved otherwise.

There were two big bags just full of stereo equipment, including two record players, two cassette players, and three tuners / amplifiers, most of which were made by Sanyo. I haven’t been able to test them fully but I plugged them in and they all seem to turn on, light up and move as they should. I expect that most, if not all the pieces work fine. Record players and amplifiers often sell in the 30-50 dollar range while cassette decks sell for a bit cheaper. Altogether, this setup in full working order is worth around 200$. Not bad!

The other bags contained lots of kids stuff, boring papers and other unexciting junk that could have easily been recycled. There were a few useful items, however, including two calligraphy sets and a feather pen with accompanying ink.

These hearts jingle when you shake them and apparently act as mirrors. I’d guess they’ll sell at a yard sale.

There were also a couple nice pieces of jewellery. The butterfly pin is made of sterling silver while the box of the little necklace indicates that the material is jade.

This old leather bag sat awaiting its fate by the curb. I like the long worn away stickers; from what is left of them I’d say were from the 1940s. It needs a little love but I think it can be fairly easily brought back to good condition.

Inside the leather bag was another smaller leather bag and a couple of pieces of bric-a-brac, including this old metal sieve with “Loyola” (a local school) written on it’s back. When I look at it the first thing I think of is panning for gold.

My most interesting finds though came from this spot on 6th Av. I’m pretty certain that this stuff belonged to an older woman who passed away. I googled a name I consistently saw amongst the items and found an obituary from a few months ago bearing the same name.

Catholic paraphernalia was pretty prominent here. Inside this old chocolate box were some hair clips but also a missal and other catholic ephemera.

Beautiful old lithographic prints bookmarked the pages of the missal and another catholic book I found. The books were published in the 40s and 50s but some of the bookmarks were older.

Also inside the chocolate box was this little hand-made piece featuring a tiny picture of a Catholic nun. There were a few different pictures of this nun leading me to believe that she was an important part of this person’s life.

This chalkware piece is broken in two places but I was able to prop it up so that it would stay in place. It could likely be fixed pretty easily and has maintained the nice detail in the faces, though the hands of both the larger and smaller figure are missing and there is some chipping to the paint. Still, it’s a cool old piece that might have some interesting history behind it. It stands about one foot tall and bears the name of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, a big church downtown on St Catherine that opened in 1881. From my knowledge I’d guess that this piece could be that old, though it could also have been made as late as the 1910s.

This wood box carved to look like a book is pretty beautiful. I’d say that it’s fairly old based on the style of the nails and hinges. It’s very well made, the “book” shuts fairly tightly but is still easy to open. It’s around 15 cm (7″) tall.

When I first found this old family photos had been placed under the glass in front of the images of Jesus and Mary. I took them out so that I could see what had been originally framed.

Here’s a couple of the old photos. The one on the right is pretty bizarre. On the back is marked the person’s name and “18 ans” (18 years old). It looks like someone took a part of a photo and drew their own image beneath, which I guess is a kind of vintage photo-shopping!

This potato chip tin was full of old materials for sewing.

These old hat pins were among the things inside. Based on the design of the package I’d say they were made in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The drawing on the other side (click below) is pretty funny.

I found a few paintings by a Rita Young. This one is my favourite, it’s nicely done and the paint has light cracks in it from age which is pretty charming. I couldn’t find any reference to the artist online.

A Brownie Kodak that came in it’s original leather holder. It seems to be in good condition.

Finally (for now) I present you this letter from NASA. This person had apparently written after the explosion of the Challenger in 1986, presumably to express condolences. She got this letter and an “In Memoriam” pamphlet in return. I think it’s a pretty cool piece of ephemera that will intrigue people at a future yard sale.

In site-related news I finally got around to updating the “Things I’ve Sold” section (under the “By My Garbage” tab). It doesn’t include something I recently sold, a lot of three old “Heraults” graphic novels from the 1940s for 57$ (which I found back in November). I should also remember to add the scrap gold and silver I sold for a pretty penny a couple of months back.

Tomorrow I head out to TMR. I’ll let you know if I find anything good.