Muhlstock

I went to the store yesterday and bought a memory card reader. It cost close to 20$ but I can now use my backup camera (a Sony DSC-T70) and I don’t have to spend any more time in cell phone camera purgatory. I’m actually pretty happy with the Sony’s performance. It’s much older than my lost Nikon but it’s very capable and takes pretty nice macro shots (which are very important in this job!).

I’ve been keeping an eye on that dumpster in the Plateau that I mentioned last post. I managed a few good finds digging around early in the week, but when I went back on Thursday the dumpster had disappeared. Maybe it’ll be back, though someone did mention to me while I was poking around the other day that whoever was using the dumpster hadn’t gotten the proper permits.

A lot of what was inside was ruined either by water or breakage. There were still several salvageable items, including a collection of nice dishes, many of which are old Fire King ware; an old meat grinder and staple gun; a collection of kitchen-themed miniature brass figurines; a National Geographic magazine from 1939; and a nice old landscape painting by someone named Gissine Horobin.

This spot in Mount Royal made up for an otherwise quiet Wednesday morning run.

Inside the recycling bin was this beautiful old poster from a bullfight in Madrid way back in 1956. It’s pretty big, measuring in at around 100 x 50 cm. The art is very similar to the old 1950s Tijuana bullfighting pamphlets that I found nearly a year ago. The eBay market for similar posters is a bit weird – people either seems to charge too much or sell for too little at auction This one went for close to 50$, though mine isn’t in quite as good condition.

I pulled these two old lamps from garbage bags in front of the same house two weeks ago. They’re quite nice and also very heavy – the green lamp’s base is definitely cast iron while the other is made from some other type of heavy metal. Both work fine, though the wiring is old and a little bit sketchy, especially on the brown lamp. The green lamp came with a oversized shade that I don’t think matches it very well. I have to do some research to see what these might be worth. All I know at this point is that the brown one mostly likely isn’t a Tiffany, which would have made it super valuable.

I also found a set of five vintage miniature Japanese masks (worth around 75$!) and a nicely painted egg, or maybe a carved piece of wood in the shape of an egg. It’s hard to tell. If anyone knows anything about the origins of the pattern let us know!

Another spot in Mount Royal provided a couple Chanel boxes, a Nike watch, and a little cloth bag full of small earrings and pendants, most of which are sterling silver or gold. I always love finding gold! Even just for melt they should fetch a decent price, though most are nice enough to make it to my eBay or Etsy store.

On Wednesday night I went to Westmount. These bags in front of a super fancy house for sale provided a few goodies, including a tall brass candy dish, a nice wooden stand, a decorative ship, a book full of Salvador Dali’s artwork, a printer, and an old video camera (which unfortunately seems to have a broken cassette door).

My best find of the week though came totally by accident. I drove a friend to an appointment in Westmount and had an hour and a half to kill before picking her up once again. I decided to take a tour around St Henri, a beautiful neighbourhood filled with lots of old character homes. It wasn’t garbage day (that’s Monday, apparently) but I saw these boxes and bags and decided to take a peek.

The bags (not pictured – I took them over to a nearby garbage bin and opened them in there) were mostly full of junk. It appeared as if someone was doing some renovating. I found a couple cool thing though, including a candle-holder and my first Montreal house number plate. This is one of the old ones, made of a heavy metal covered in blue and white enamel.

To me this plate is classic Montreal. If I were to try to imagine an ideal image of Montreal I’d picture row houses, external stairs and number plates like this one (and the similar type with the white background with black letters). It’s cool to have one of my own!

Inside the wide cardboard boxes was my most valuable find. The boxes were mostly full of packing paper but one contained two old picture frames. I dug deeper and found what was likely originally inside one of the frames.

It was a really pretty watercolour. I thought it looked special (and I always like original art) and decided to bring it home to do some research. Based on the signature (compare the picture below to this one) it appears to be a work by Louis Muhlstock. He emigrated from Poland to Montreal when he was 7, studied art in Paris and then returned to Montreal to become a well renown painter. Canada’s National Art Gallery has 20 pieces of his work. His artwork also manages pretty good prices in auction, realizing prices from a few hundred to over ten thousand.

I don’t think this one will get ten thousand, or even a thousand. It’s smaller than many of the high-priced ones (only around 11×10″), has some very mild damage (pin holes on the corners, evidence of a minor bend at some point, though it’s not very noticeable), and appears to be untitled. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if I could get a few hundred bucks for this piece, assuming of course it’s legit. My mom linked me to a local gallery looking to buy Muhlstock’s so I’ll likely take it down there early next week to see what they say. Regardless, it’s a pretty cool and unique find!

New listings:

None. I was planning on doing some listing today but between researching and blogging I didn’t had the time. The whole camera debacle also set me back a bit. I hope to have a bunch listed in time for my next post.

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If you have a question, see anything that you’re interesting in buying, or to just want to say hello feel free to email me at thingsifindinthegarbage@gmail.com. I also like comments!