My most interesting finds last week came from a blurry pile not far from the owl house. The aged cardboard box caused me to do a double take while driving by – it ended up containing broken pieces of stained glass.
Inside one of the bigger bags was a box containing two vintage Czechoslovakian table lamps. They’re quite nice and have little noticeable damage, though one is missing its hanging bits and neither looks to have any wiring. I brought them to the auction house, check out the listing page if you want a closer look (the auction is ending tonight, so bid now if you want them!).
I looked inside another bag and saw a bunch of sewing stuff. It started to rain, so I threw the bag in the car and sorted through it at home.
This old Macdonald’s cigarette tin held a tangle of buttons.
Most were strung through a metal wire. Many are made from mother of pearl, which do pretty well on eBay when sold in lots. There’s also a few WWII buttons on there, those are pretty common but always cool to find.
Also inside the bag was an old, beat-up folder filled mostly with crochet magazines.
The magazines date to the 1910s and 1920s, making them around 100 years old! These are the ones that survived the past century relatively unscathed – a few others weren’t quite so lucky.
I think magazines like these sell for around 10-20$ individually. However, that would require a fair bit of effort on my part, and they would probably take a while to sell. My current plan is to list them as a lot on eBay. We’ll see how that goes!
My favourite folder find however is the unusual piece below…
It’s an old air raid precautions poster from around WWII. It measures about 14 x 10.5″ and was probably made to be displayed in public. There was some concern in Canada and the US about potential attacks from Axis powers, but the risk was obviously far lower here than in other parts of the world. As a result, this piece may be rare – I had no luck finding anything similar on Google.
Zoom in for a closer look. Below is the French version that appears on the opposite side.
Pretty cool eh? I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet. It would likely have value to a collector, but maybe it would be better to give it to a museum or archive.
I fished these pieces from the bottom of one of the other bags. On the right is a very worn coin that I’m guessing is an old silver dime. On the left is a 1925 Jubilee medallion, and in the centre is a first communion souvenir dating from 1890. See the opposite sides below!
That’s all from this spot, at least for now…
I’ve been focused on clearing out my junk before winter; I’d say that the job is just about done. My garage is actually looking a bit empty after several purges, and I’m excited to begin a new era of organization and categorization with the auction house in mind.
My best recent finds have come from Côte-des-Neiges and Cartierville. I’ll be sure to share some of those here relatively soon.
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Several things from the 1920s! Hurrah for all you continue to due!!!
Or rather, to do…
We, at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, would probably interested in the poster of the Air Raid. If you want to contact us.
Congratulations for saving the 1925 silver medallion.You are a Genius.I cannot overemphasize it. I hope you keep making such finds.
Your posts are always different, and always fun. I never get bored with them, and always look forward to a notification of a new arrival in my email inbox.
Sounds like you have a plan for future organizing. May it prove to be stress free!
You always come across some fantastic finds!
The Tobacco tin and crochet books are such neat finds. I hope you make some good money on this stuff. Thanks for saving it from the landfill.
Listening to Cohen and reading and seeing your pictures is a special Montreal treat .Thanks for sharing ! You really rock!
Sorry if I am going yo be a little bit curious. But how you ever wonder why people throw away this kind of treasures?
Have you ever curious about the story behind your finds?
Oh I do. I assume most fall “quality trash” falls into two categories: things that people don’t know or understand the value of, and things that get tossed because people just don’t care. Sometimes it can be both, especially when the tossers are already rich and don’t really need the money. I like to think about the stories, but there’s only so much you can know.
thanks so much in replying
I recently found 170 new Iphone covers,and 200 packed toys,plastic binoculars,soldiers and put together airplanes,2 old hand painted plates from Jerusalem and 20 collectable glasses from various beer suppliers..It seems luck is coming in other countries like yours.But what you find is incredible!
The crochet booklets are amazing! What a great find.
The artwork on the crochet magazines is charming. I hope they end up with someone who will really appreciate them!
You should put up one post per week on your blog.You are making readers wait too long between posts.