The Seventeenth Toronto Bottle Show was Sunday April 17th 2011

A terrific after-church activity the Toronto Bottle Show has always been a one day event, and in my opinion its a perfect way to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon.
My visit to this year's show left me wondering about how to value my own antiques, and maybe you can help me ponder something...  Ruminate on this subject with me

Are antiques a good investment?

The guy sitting behind all those pretty torpedo bottles is Terry Matz, and he's one of Canada's foremost experts on early Canadian soda bottles. It doesnt get much older, or more valuable, than the lovelies you see right there in that picture - these are all dated between 1855 -1885 and they are all super rare - the average price for any bottle in that display case is approx $1200 and that's a good investment... or is it?

In this case it is, as torpedo bottles will always be rare and special... They're not making any more torpedo shaped soda bottles, and each of those bottles is very unique, so in theory that's a good investment.

But the prices are dropping on other more mediocre merchandise because people are losing interest in 'clutter' and antiques that are not functional are more difficult to sell and store and get any pleasure from... sure they're pretty, but so what?

I believe that today it would be tragic to invest in a lot of mediocre antiquities - these will definitely drop in price as people lose connection to the past and the material becomes so much junk - no buyers, not fit for a museum but too valuable to discard.

Sweet spots for investing in antiques are as follows,

Old advertising signs are always going to be valuable because they look great in modern condos and offices - the contrast between old and new is satisfying and this art is coveted. Paper posters, framed glass pictures are ok but the sweet spot is painted metal panels and wooden box art and even two colour cardboard advertisments. There are a lot of freshly painted white walls in our society and these signs will always be in demand.

So too will unique one-of-a-kind antiques. Occassionaly people bring really rare things to he bottle show and this year Ed Locke, seen in the photo above, brought in a Solnhofen Stone printing slab which was used in the early days of lithographic printing - $150 this piece shows an early advertisment for a Brandon Manitoba brewey which is also extremely rare. This is lithographic printing technology. Its the precursor of today's printable coupons. This stone made impressions or was itself a type of drawing board for testing impressions, I'm not sure how it worked exactly, but I know the exremely fine limestone block can only be obtained from one quary in Solnhofen Germany.

One of a klind items like this are worth buying because there's a much better chance they will skyrocket in value in the future. Oprah Winfrey might do a whole special on Solnhofen and then everyone will want one... So this is an exceptional purchase for $150, and yet to my knowledge it didnt sell. Maybe it loses some appeal because its so heavy. The artifact would be too heavy for the average bottle collector to lift and carry out to the car.

Here's a cream and tan stoneware ginger beer bottle from a propreitor named H. Christin who was a brewer in Ottawa in the 1880s. This vessel was made by Brantford Pottery right here in Ontario, or  'Upper Canada' as it was then...

Attractively priced at $850, I reckon this is a terrific investment because there are so many ginger beer bottle collectors all over Canada and the world.  This is a rare bottle from a well documented brewer in the nation's capital. This item has all the ingredients for a great investment.

Keep an eye out for cottage kitsch

The modern Muskoka cottage suffers from being too modern; the domiciles need kitsch to look and feel more quaint. So many million dollar mansions on Lake Muskoka are ultra modern buildings. They're not made of pine logs or timber at all but rather concrete and rigid foam insulation. They lack any cultural trappings or mood enhancing memorbelia  They feel too sanitary and are like weird cement institutions and totally unsymapthetic additions to the natural landscape of the lake. They dont have the charm of a family cottage, but rather feel like a house in the suburbs. They need knickknacks.

DO BUY antique fishing lures, vintage boating equipment, art deco furniture and utilitarian items like 1950's 60s and 70s kitchenware and beer coolers etc and even attractive native crafts. These items find ready buyers in new cottagers. 

I wrote a longer and more detailed account of the 2011 Toronto Bottle Show on Dumpdiggers blog; it's about ten pages of text with over twenty pictures. The piece profiles 15 of the 35 dealers present at the show.