I went out for a run last night and found two noteworthy things. The first was amongst this pile in Mount Royal – you can see it to the right of the telephone pole. I would guess it was tossed as part of a garage clear out.
It was a very cool wooden chandelier.
It’s pretty nicely carved, perhaps by hand.
I don’t know how old it is but I’d guess it’s fairly vintage. The top bit (I’m not sure the word for that) is definitely quite retro, as is the nylon fabric covered wire (though other parts look to have been rewired relatively recently).
I would guess I could sell it for between 50-100$, though maybe it would go for more. I don’t know much about chandeliers so I might be wrong. What do you think? It’s in nice condition outside of a couple not too noticeable cracks on the end bits. It’s also fairly large, measuring about 65cm in diameter.
My other noteworthy find came while driving home. There are a few streets in Rosemont that for whatever reason have pickups on Wednesday morning, as opposed to the rest of the area which has their garbage collection on Thursday morning. I’ll often casually check these out on my way to or from Mount Royal, which is my usual Tuesday evening / Wednesday morning route.
I stopped at this pile when I noticed a couple vintage looking things out front. It was on rue St-Denis, one of Montreal’s finest commercial streets further south but here a long row of early 20th century apartments.
St-Denis is also one of the countless number of streets (and other things) named after saints in Montreal and Quebec in general. I don’t know who most of them are, but I figured I’d look up Saint Denis while I was on the topic. Apparently he is the patron saint of Paris, who after being decapitated picked up his head and walked six miles while preaching repentance. The more you know!
I spent a while looking through the bags but didn’t find much of interest. I left a few things out in the open for others to find. There’s a lot of competition in this area, so I expect most of these items were saved before the truck came around. That competition also means that I was probably very lucky to be the first one to find the stand in the centre of this photo.
It was a very beautiful Art Nouveau era (1890s-1920s) standing ashtray.
The base features a crane (or swan?), which seems to have been a fairly popular animal in the art of that time.
I doubt the glass ashtray is original, but it fits well enough and does the job.
It seems to made of solid cast iron. It’s marked FLOR 585, which brings up nothing on Google. However, I did find a similar one on eBay that went for about 90$ + shipping. Not bad!
Whoa! That’s a beautiful stand! Would cost a lot in shipping tho…hope you find a good price for it..it ‘s beautiful!
Wow! Two great finds.
Do you think the chandelier may have been used with candles originally, and then wired for electricity? I’m thinking you could ask at the very least $100. The wood is in great shape and re-wiring is not a big deal.
That Art Nouveau ashtray is a beauty. It would make a great plant stand; the ashtray could be the saucer.
I was wondering that too. It’s possible, though I imagine this would have been hard to add wiring too after the fact.
Good idea about the plant stand… I’m going to be tempted to keep this one, ha ha
The art nouveau ashtray would make a lovely bird bath if you replaced the ashtray with a dish.
I was thinking that – would love to have it but no way can I afford shipping!
Love, love, love the ashtray stand, it is beautiful. I have one, not as old, not as ornate, I use in my garden as a bird feeder!
Thanks for sharing.
Two good finds!i think the ashtray bowl might be good for a plant but it’s too small for a birdbath. I would use it as an ashtray. You should keep it!