A guide to antiquing in Canada

Whether you’re on holiday or staying home this summer, it’s the best time of the year to go antique-hunting. Most dealers have been stocking up for the tourist season and when the weather is so pleasant, it’s fun to take a picnic and drive down country roads, stopping at yard sales, flea markets and local shops to search for treasures. Here are some of my favourite ways to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

By Stevie Cameron (Canadian Home and Country)

VICTORIA

In Victoria, there are many pockets of the city and suburbs with good shops here and there, but the best area is Fort Street. The street is not as good as it was; the quality has dropped to more of a collectibles street than fine antiques, but you will find several very good shops here. The oldest and one of the best is Faith Grant The Connoisseurs Shop at 1156 Fort St., which is crammed to the gunnels with British furniture, silver, porcelain and decorative objects. David Robinson, 1023 Fort St., offers European furniture, pictures, silver, English porcelain and rugs, and Domus Antica Galleries, at 1038-40 Fort St., has Staffordshire figures, brass and steel trivets, plenty of old Mason ironstone, samplers and good 19th-century English furniture.

VANCOUVER

My top areas for antiques and collectibles:
• Marine Drive, West Vancouver: I like Bohemia Antiques in Dundarave Village at 2444 Marine Drive; it has some very nice 19th-century British furniture along with some good porcelain and lamps. Treasure Chest Antiques, also in Dundarave Village at 2465 Marine Drive, always has excellent finds. North Vancouver has a number of good shops, too, but one I like, The Urban Settler, found at 125 – 18 Gostick Place, does good reproductions of Quebec furniture. This is also where you’ll find Echo’s Discontinued China at 121 – 1433 Lonsdale Ave.

OTTAWA

Except for Bank Street south, you won’t find one single area of Ottawa where there is a concentrated section of good shops, but it is worthwhile criss-crossing the city to hunt. My favourites? I love all the maps and prints from my friend John Coles’ Astrolabe Gallery at 71 Sparks Street; this is where we bought a pair of prints of Redouté lilies for our 20th wedding anniversary… some years ago now. Arthur Bousquet and Lelia Donohue at Donohue & Bousquet at 27 Hawthorne Avenue have good silver and Sheffield plate. Then there is Ernest Johnson Antiques at it’s new location of 1179-A Bank Street South, again, with furniture, as well as silver and porcelain. His website amuses me; he definitely does not sell collectibles, nor will he evaluate Lladro and Hummel figurines. And Robert and Graham Macartney’s store, The Antique Shoppe, at its new location of 6588 Forth Line Road in North Gower outside of the city, has good British furniture. Jane Mitchell has carried fine furniture, silver and porcelain for years; her items are carried at the Astrolabe Gallery as well.

MONTREAL

Montreal has almost as many good areas as Toronto and here you may find a few of the great Quebec pieces of furniture and silver that are so hard to get now. Here are just three of the best areas:

• Notre-Dame West: Simply one of the best areas of fine antiques stores in Canada; here you can find a mix of furniture, architectural antiques, marble pieces and so much more. Just a few examples are Ambiance Antiquités, found at 1874 Notre Dame West, with 18th- and 19th-century Quebec furniture. Two others are Antiquités Michelle Parent at 1650 Notre Dame West and Milord Antiques at 1870 Notre Dame West, with European furniture. This area is well worth a long day of browsing, learning and, with luck, some shopping.

• Downtown, near McGill: Antiquités Phyllis Friedman Inc., one of the city’s best dealers, is at 1476 Sherbrooke St. W., with fine British and European furniture from the 17th to the 19th centuries, as well as a good selection of silver, lamps and decorative objects. And a long-time personal favourite of mine, David S. Brown Antiquaire, is at Suite 203, 995 Wellington, with fine English furniture, porcelain and silver. David Brown, like the late John Russell, is known as one of the real gentlemen in the business and a very nice guy.

• Westmount, from Green Avenue to DÉcarie: Rowntree Antiques at 780 Atwater, has an exhaustive picture inventory of very nice European country furniture, and good lamps and decorative objects. Henrietta Antony Inc., at 4192 Ste Catherine W., is a legendary dealer with wonderful furniture and other objects. And Ruth Stalker Antiques, at 4447 Ste Catherine W., sells fine Canadian furniture, decoys and decorative objects.

QUEBEC CITY

Quebec City has long been a legendary source of the best antiques in Canada, but even if you have the money, good pieces are increasingly hard to find. The place to start:

• Rue Saint-Paul in the Old Port area: This restored community of 18th-century houses is one of the liveliest in the province, and one of the most famous antiques rows in the country. Louis Bolduc’s Boutique aux Mémoires Antiquités at 105 Rue St. Paul and Gérard Bourguet Antiquaire Inc. at 97 Rue St. Paul are two of the excellent stores here.

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TORONTO

Toronto is crammed with antiques, collectibles, flea markets and second-hand shops. The best way for a newcomer to start is to visit the areas of the city with the best quality goods and the most knowledgeable dealers. They are generous with advice and will have plenty of ideas for you.

• Yonge Street between Bloor and St. Clair: The stores here are almost all high-end places selling fine British, Canadian and European furniture, porcelain, silver and decorative items. This strip has terrific detours branching off from it: Cumberland, Yorkville and Hazelton Avenues as well as Davenport Road. Favourites include Elisabeth Legge Fine Antique Prints at 41B Hazelton Ave., The Blue Pump at 178 Davenport Rd., The Paisley Shop Ltd. at 77 Yorkville Ave., Louis Wine Ltd. nearby at 150 Cumberland St.., and R.A. O’Neil Antiques Ltd. at 100 Avenue Road. It’s a day’s walk around the area but there are so many good places to stop for coffee or a sandwich you will enjoy every minute.

• Mt. Pleasant Road between Millwood and Eglinton: My favourite of all the Toronto antiques strips. Lorenz Antiques Ltd. at 701 Mt. Pleasant is one of the city’s best dealers and has superb quality; Bernardi’s Antiques at 699 Mt. Pleasant is a favourite, especially for china; Susan’s Antiques at 585 Mt. Pleasant specializes in good quilts, wicker and transferware, while RomEla Antique Lighting Inc., which has since moved from its Mt. Pleasant location to 316 Yonge Street, has lamps and handmade shades.

• Toronto Antique Centre on King Street, near Roy Thomson Hall: My favourite store here, among the many that moved here from the now-defunct Queen’s Quay market, is Cynthia Findlay Antiques at 284 King Street West, whose selection of silver, estate jewellery and porcelain is extraordinary. The King Street centre, at 239 King Street East, is also home to D&E Lake Ltd., selling antique maps, prints and books, (Don Lake has two other locations in Toronto) and Ritchies at 380 King Street East, does terrific auctions of high quality antiques, rugs and pictures, but also regular sales of everyday goods with great finds. They are affiliated with Sotheby’s for major Canadian art sales.

• Queen Street – East and West: Running across the bottom of the city, this is a favourite haunt for people looking for collectibles and antiques. For years it suffered, deservedly, from the ‘funky’ label, but now it is much better than that and it’s well worth setting aside a day to stroll all the way along it. Just north of Queen West, at 111 Bathurst St., you’ll find Waddington’s, the other big Toronto auction house – in fact, the biggest in Canada. They have catalogue auctions for the best quality furniture, decorative arts objects, silver and rugs and are in partnership with Joyners for Canadian art. They also offer regular estate auctions – a great bargain bin of stuff.

NOVA SCOTIA

Picking one route in Nova Scotia is difficult, but the Lighthouse Route, which takes you along the south shore, is home to at least 32 shops, including: Blue Shutters Antiques, a good centre at 3167 Highway #3, East Chester; Brambles Antiques, 25 Cornwallis St., Lunenburg; Olde Blanket Box, 12795 Peggys Cove Road, Tantallon, with lots of antiques.

NEW BRUNSWICK

Many people recommend Boutique Recycl’Art & Antiques at 149 John St. in Moncton; others love Joan Carlisle-Irving’s shop, Croix Crest Antiques at 49 Mary St., specializing in early New Brunswick furniture. Tim Isaac Antiques and Auction, in Saint John is another wonderful place. Cathy Constantine of Timber River Farm in Port Elgin, carries things like painted furniture and pantry boxes, hooked rugs and mats and crewel seat covers.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Your best bet for antiques in P.E.I. is along what is called Charlotte’s Shore – Borden, Cape Traverse, Tryon, Crapaud, Cornwall and Charlottetown. But some of the best shops on the island are a little west of these – Riverview Antiques  at Travellers Rest on Route 2 in Summerside is one; Homestead Antiques at 286 Fitzroy St., is another.

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Here are three places I would go to shop this summer (if I had the airfare).

Henhouse, at 5533 Young St., in Halifax’s historic Hydrostone district, is delicious. Run by Sappho Griffin and Denise Coulter, it carries antique Maritime harvest tables and blanket boxes as well as vintage McCoy pottery.

Halifax’s Renovator’s ReSource Inc. is a Canadian leader in the re-use of architectural materials. The huge store sells everything from furniture to whole buildings. They will ship anywhere in North America. You’ll find them at 6040 Almon Street, Halifax.

Another favourite is the Old Country Market, where “goats on the roof” roam in Coombs, B.C., a village on Vancouver Island near Qualicum Beach. My brother and his wife have a weekend home in Qualicum and when they first took me to see the place I thought it was just a wonderful food market with cute goats chewing grass on the sod roof. What I learned, however, is that there is a neat little antiques section in the back of the building selling pieces that include many cupboards and chests chosen by the Market’s owner, Larry Geekie. It’s well worth a visit. If you don’t find something wonderful, you can head for the ice cream counter.

Read more in Out & About and Flea Markets & Antiques Fairs