Collectibles from Canada and the United States for sale

#1174 The museum opened in 1912. In 1915 two towers were taken down due to the weight of the museum sinking. The dish shows them gone. Imports from Germany were reduced curtailed during the war. In 1916 the museum closed as Parliament moved in following the loss of Parliament’s Centre Block to fire. In 1920 the museum was reopened. It was divided into two in 1927 but souvenirs continued to name the building for some time. The best guess of the age of this dish is the 1920s by the image and the style of souvenir. It measures 11 x 7.5 x 2 cm.

#1038 Kinichi Shigeno is a well known, Japanese-born ceramic artist based in British Columbia, Canada. You can get an idea of the selling price of his work here: You can see that the two cups alone justifies more than this price. The decanter bottle is worth about $600 and the two cups over $120 each.

#1277 This bowl is made by hand by a glass studio in Winnipeg. It measures 12 x 12.5 cm.

#1431 This attractive hand made letter holder hangs on a wall using the built in hardware. Handmade pottery. It measures 16.5 x 12 cm.

#1120 This print was published in Canadian Scenery, London 1840-42. Bartlett lived from 1809 to 1854 and was a prolific illustrator. He is the illustrator of early 19th century Canada. This print has been hand coloured. The framed size is 32 x 35 cm. You can find other Bartlett prints here. You will note my price is about half of what they go for unframed – and this is framed. Would make a great gift for an Ottawa resident.

#1019 This pewter picture holder depicts a lighthouse from the east coast. It measures 16 x 8.5 x 3 cm

#1338 Souvenir or plate from the hotel. Made in the 1920s (judging by the backstamp). It is 21 cm across

#1404 BC teacup and saucer. Saucer measures 11.5 wide and the teacup is 7 x 5 x 5.5. It is believed to be mid century.

#1430 Whistle imitating the sound of a loon – hand made. From Newfoundland and Labrador. Measures 12 x 5 x 7 cm.

#1253 Black Creek Village is a village in Toronto set in the 1800s. People can visit and see how people lived then. It is similar to Upper Canada Village. They produce objects there in the way they were made in the 1800s and people can buy them in the giftshop. Naturally, they held major events for Centennial year. It measures 7.5 x 7 x 4 cm.

#1066 Wonderfully finished vintage ironwood, heavy duck decoy. 23 x 12 x11.5 cm

#1067 A vintage duck decoy. I have had this quite a few years. 23 x 12 x 11.5 cm

#1073 This salad set was bought in the late 1960s from Canada’s Four Corners in Ottawa. It was given as a gift and sent to England. It returned in the 1990s. It could have travel stickers on it! It measures 30 x 26 x 10 cm and the Utensils are 25 cm long.

#1559 This broach pin is hand painted and highly detailed. It is from Touchstone Pottery, Antigonish Nova Scotia. The work is done by artists Don Davenport and Jim Murray

#1076 Ottawa artist Lorna MacLaren is a very accomplished painter on Porcelain. You can find videos of Lorna MacLaren working here. Lorna Maclaren is the Assistant Editor at Porcelain Artists of Canada based in Carleton Place, Ontario and a teacher at World Organization of China Painters. This vase is 9 x 12 x 5 cm.

#1113 Martin Demaine is an artist and mathematician, he is the Angelika and Barton Weller artist in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After studying glassblowing in England, he began his artistic career by blowing art glass in New Brunswick in the early 1970s. The Demaine Studio, located in Miramichi Bay and later at Opus Village in Mactaquac, was the first one-man glass studio in Canada, part of the international studio glass movement.

Demaine’s pieces from this period are represented in the permanent collections of half a dozen major museums including the Canadian Museum of History and the National Gallery of Canada. These pieces are in demand and quite expensive.

#1359 Two small well done, vintage Quebec wood carvings measuring 11 x 3 x 2.5 cm. It seems whatever was written on the bottom has rubbed off. Price is for the pair.

#1086 Boma Haida design boxes are resin reproductions of argillite art (argillite is a very rare black stone). Boma is located in North Vancouver and all their work is made in Canada. They are still operating although this box has not been made in some time. They have been licensed to make souvenirs for the Canadian Museum of History. This vintage box is made of resin and pewter. It is 10 x 13 cm.

#1092 Coasters from the southwest United States featuring Indigenous designs. These are souvenirs of Sedona. Unclear how old they are. They could be anywhere between very recent and a couple decades old. Very attractive in a mid century modern room décor. They are 10 cm x 10 cm.

#1093 These are two original watercolours of Quebec scenes. Quebec has long had a street where artists sell their work outside. I suspect these were sold there. Many artists selling their work on the street have since become famous. I cannot identify the artists as perhaps the signatures are hidden in the framing. The notes on the back date the framing to 1981. They measure 45.5 x 21.5 cm each.

#1094 This old window has been turned into an attractive 3-light mirror. Painting on the frame seems to be the reddish paint that used to be used on windows in the past. It measures 19 x 76 cm.

#1098 This painting is by Florence Wilkins Furst. It is like many of her nautical coastal themes. Florence Wilkins Furst was born in 1885 in Delavan, Wisconsin. She studied at Rockford College in llinois with George Oberteufer, Ivan Olinsky, Violet Oakley, and Lucie Hartrath.

She also studied in Paris. She was a member of the Chicago Art Club, the Rockford Art Association, the Studio Guild, the American Artists Professional League, and the National Arts Club, and she exhibited at the Chicago Art Club; Allied Artists of America; Century of Progress, Chicago, 1933; Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida; New York Public Library; Springfield Illinois Museum of Art; and the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. She won awards at the All-Illinois Society of Fine Arts (gold); the Rockford Art Association in 1936; and the Palm Beach Art League 1939.

Her work is found in the State Museum in Springfield, Illionis. She died in 1955 in Freeport, Illinois. The framed size is 40 x 35 cm.

#1115 This is a rare old souvenir of Chinatown from during a period when the Chinese Nationalists were trying to get as much support from the United States government as possible both for their war against Japan which ended in 1945 and the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists which ended in 1949. The nationalists fled to Taiwan bringing the flag pictured here with them. It measures 12 x 9.5 cm.

#1139 This is an old Anne of Green Gables souvenir from 70-80 years ago. It is made in England by Royal Winton. The property was purchased by the government of Canada as a old house but not furnished as per the Green Gables books until the 1970s. The early souvenirs from before the house was an official Green Gables tourism site are more valuable. I have another Green Gables souvenir dish as well. It measures 11.5 x 9 cm.

#1164 This is an old Anne of Green Gables souvenir from 70-80 years ago. It is made in England by Royal Winton. The property was purchased by the government of Canada as a old house but not furnished as per the Green Gables books until the 1970s. The early souvenirs from before the house was an official Green Gables tourism site are more valuable. I have another Green Gables souvenir dish as well. It measures 13 cm.

#1450 Lustreware souvenir pitcher, Niagara Falls, made in Germany. The scene is from the American side looking towards the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The piece measures 11 x 11 x 7 cm. Made in the 1920s or 30s.

#1251 These bowls marked Stuart 1995 are made in Canada . The colours are bright and the bowls are beautiful. 16.5 x 5 cm each.

The “South West Pottery that isn’t” says one article. The stamp says Nemadji Pottery. It used to go further and once said “Nemadji Indian Pottery native clay.” By the 1950s the label read what it does now. The name means left handed in Ojibwe. Nemadji claimed that the same clays and shapes were those used by Native Americans. That is also a fabrication. So, this is a story about racist appropriation for the purpose of marketing. The pottery did become a part of American ceramic history, iconic and coveted for its flowing designs.

Nemadji started out in 1923 as a ceramic tile company in Moose Lake, MN. Danish immigrant Eric Hellman created the original thrown pottery needed to fashion molds for mass production. Hellman also modernized the Nemadji kilns, trained the company’s workers, and introduced the “cold striped” painting process which gave Nemadji pottery its multi-colored swirls.

Most Nemadji pottery was molded from either a colored or white clay, fired and left in a bisque (unglazed) state. Different colored paints were floated on top of a vat of water and a small bit of vinegar was added to help separate the paints. Using a technique similar to marbling paper, the fired vase was hand-dipped into the water and swirled in the floating colors. The pieces did not have to be refired and dried quickly, creating uniquely decorated pots every time.

Nemadji was certainly not the first manufacturer who decorated pottery with a marbled effect. English agateware, mochaware, European ceramics in the 19th century and some Japanese ceramics as far back as the 16th century all used swirled clays or glazes to approximate the rich veining of marble. In the late 1920s, firms such as Niloak of Arkansas and Desert Sands Pottery of Nevada made vessels of colored clays swirled together to create a marbled effect. The vase measures 15 x 10 cm.

#1367 L’Opinion publique was a French language periodical in Canada in the 1800s that reproduced art prints. Read about these periodicals in Canada. The advent of these graphic newspapers came with a move from steel to wood engraving at high resolution. Large newspapers of the day competed to provide illustrations that could be kept. Illustrations were sold in black and white or were hand tinted like this one as an added value. While many of these are no more, these are often the sources of 19th century prints you see today.

This print, of the Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montréal was published in Vol. 1, no 19 (12 mai 1870), p. 149. The illustration as it appeared in black and white is listed in the Quebec archives here. It is well framed in wood and glass using archival material. The print itself is an original from the time, hand tinted and not a later copy. It measures 39 x 36.5 cm.

#1368 L’Opinion publique was a French language periodical in Canada in the 1800s that reproduced art prints. Read about these periodicals in Canada. The advent of these graphic newspapers came with a move from steel to wood engraving at high resolution. Large newspapers of the day competed to provide illustrations that could be kept. Illustrations were sold in black and white or were hand tinted like this one as an added value. While many of these are no more, these are often the sources of 19th century prints you see today.

This print, of barges on the river at Montréal was published in Vol. 10, no 29 (17 juillet 1879), p.342. The illustration as it appeared in black and white is listed in the Canadian archives here. It is well framed in wood and glass using archival material. The print itself is an original from the time, hand tinted and not a later copy. It measures 37 x 39 cm.

#1368 The Illustrated London News was a periodical in the 1800s that reproduced art prints. The advent of these graphic newspapers came with a move from steel to wood engraving at high resolution. Large newspapers of the day competed to provide illustrations that could be kept. Illustrations were sold in black and white or were hand tinted like this one as an added value. While many of these are no more, these are often the sources of 19th century prints you see today.

This print, was published on October 13, 1860 as a part of the coverage of the visit of the Prince of Wales (Later Edward the VI) to Canada that year. The illustration as it appeared in black and white is listed in the Wiki here. It is well framed in wood and glass using archival material. The print itself is an original from the time, hand tinted and not a later copy. It measures 45.5 x 25 cm.

Collectibles from Canada and the United States

Items for sale here are associated with Canadian and American artists or culture specific to North America. They include hand made works of art, Indigenous designs, historical items, antiques and more. The artwork and collectibles in this section are made in Canada or the United States.