Installation View

Come see the finished installation at Twice Found, 608 Markham St., Toronto ON. It's just one block west and a bit south of Bathurst Station. Hours are Tuesday-Sunday 12-6pm.

Object #10

Timeline mug marked Decorated in Canada, 22k Gold, Can. Art China, Collingwood Ont. 100% Canadian, in mould marked Made in Canada, W80

Keith

His mother had taken the mug for being sacrilegious, as it dated the human eye and that pointing Dadaist hand at 1,000,000 B.C. As such he was surprised to find it in the attic a few years later, along with several boxes of old comics he had thought lost forever. Looking at it now, Keith had his own problems with the mug’s timeline. He was fairly certain horseback riding pre-dated 1860, and wasn’t so sure those modern looking headphones were standard in 1920. He had to admit though, it was still a pretty funky mug.

Object #9

Yellow-orange mug, Alliston Canada, AP 150.

Bridget

Multiple of 14 sts.
Row 1: Skip 2ch (count as 1 dc), 2dc into first ch, *1 dc into each of next 3ch, (over next 3ch work dc3tog) twice, 1dc into each if next 3ch, (3dc into next st) twice; rep from * ending last rep with 3dc once only into last ch, turn.
Row2: 3ch (count as 1 dc), 2dc into first st, *1dc into each of next 3 sts, (over next 3 sts work dc3tog) twice, 1dc into each of the next 3 sts, (3dc into next st) twice; rep from * ending last rep with 3dc once only into top of ch, turn.
Rep 2nd row.

Object #8

Orange-red mug, Alliston Canada, AP 150.

Kate

Multiple of 18 sts.
Row 1: (RS) KRow 2: (WS) P Row 3: *(K2tog) 3 times, (yo, K1) 6 times, (k2tog) 3 times. Rpt from * to end of row.Row 4: K

Object #7

Olive Elwill Canada ashtray, model number 117, from 1967 with centenial mark on bottom.

Agnes

When she was little, she liked to hold the dish and rub the centennial mark on the bottom, thinking of a hundred years of history, spilling the contents on the carpet. It had been an ashtray, her mother’s long thin cigarettes resting in the perfect grooves along what Agnes had thought of as the belly of a fish. She kept her brushes there now. Three long, thin sable ones, a gift from her father.

Object #6

Turquoise ashtray, unmarked. Similar to a McMaster glaze, so it might be theirs.

James

He hated the ashtray, but it was a gift from his sister, so he had to leave it on the coffee table in case she stopped by.

Object #5

Brown and Green Ashtray, McMaster Canada, model 93.

Edward

At least they let him keep the ashtray. He’d worked at the firm for the last fourteen years, hacking away at endless contract disputes and minor clerical. He’d taking up smoking the third year in, the year of his promotion from clerk to real office. That’s when they’d given him the ashtray. He liked the way the cigars filled the room with haze, let him play at hardboiled detective, digging through files. They stopped letting people smoke in offices shortly after he was laid off. He suspected this was why he was allowed to keep it.

Object #4

This is one of a pair of white clay Beauceware cups and saucers. This one has no makers mark, but is otherwise identical to the second cup, barring the second cup’s small chip. A copy of the Beauce book is being procured to check the serial numbers and thus get the dates. I estimate they’re from the late 50s or early 60s.

The glaze is a little more green than in this photo, and has greater subtlety than is often seen in similar Beauce glazes. It’s a standard dark ground with lighter drip from the top/centre.

Jillian

With a napkin and some tea Jillian helps her sister wash the dirt from her face and hands. She gently pulls pine needles from her hair. Her sister holds her teacup like a live thing, half expecting too strong a breath to further shatter it.
“We’ll paint it with my set. No one will be able to tell. And it’s such a little chip, all the way at the bottom. It’ll all be okay. You’ll see.”
Her sister stares at her hands and their contents.
“You’ll see.” Jillian places the bow back in her sister’s long, black hair.

Object #3

This is one of a pair of white clay Beaceware cups and saucers. This one has a complete Beauce mark with the cb mark and serial number. It has a small chip under the handle that the previous owner has attempted to mask by painting it blue. The blue paint is also faded, suggesting much use after the chip occurred.

The glaze is a little more green than in this photo, and has greater subtlety than is often seen in similar Beauce glazes. It’s a standard dark ground with lighter drip from the top/centre.

Jacqueline

“More tea?”
“Of course.”
Two girls with straight black hair, plaid dresses and bows, white tights and black mary janes. Perfect teeth in tiny mouths. The picnic had been on for an hour or so, the adults cheering various strange races and contests, the older children competing for trinkets. Left alone on a pale blue blanket, a wicker basket full of lunch, a thermos full of tea and dark, sturdy teacups. Jacqueline pours carefully, straining with the liquid’s weight. A slight slip and she burns her sister, who pushes her off the blanket, down the hill.

Object #2

This is a brown trophy mug, with the inscription CANADA LSP on the bottom. The front has two plaques, one says Molson Award with the Molson’s logo, the second is engraved metal that says East London Slo Pitch 81 Export Champ. I’ve asked a few collectors about this mug, and we all agree it is likely Laurentian Pottery. I’m not terribly sure what the S could stand for, but more research is being done.

These mugs appear frequently at thrift shops, and one could get a whole series of years and sports if so inclined.

Will

His dad built a shelf for it in the den. A solid plank of dark stained wood Will would never remember the name of. After dozens of other failures – the car fiasco, golf, hunting – he’d done something worth his own space in his father’s hall of masculinity.

Three years later, after the accident, he toasted the man from this lone trophy. He took it back to Toronto with him when his mother sold the house. Standing in his apartment he knew the exact spot he would build the shelf for both of them, from smooth, dark wood.

Object #1

This is a red clay McMaster Craft souvenir mug from Dundas, Ontario, produced some time in the 1950s or 60s, according to Holly Gnaedinger of Twice Found, a store specializing in midcentury modern design in Toronto. The mug has Frobisher Bay, N.W.T written on it in gold pen, as was common among McMaster souvenir objects. The remains of the company’s sticker is still visible, with the words Dundas, Canada. It is light blue with a darker blue green drip from the top.


DOUG

She’d been gone for 12 hours, 17 minutes and 43 seconds. Doug poured more beer into the pale blue mug, a gift from her parents after an ill-advised trip. It made him angry, who goes to Baffin Island for a vacation? The mug’s mate lay broken next to the half closed door. Doug finished the beer and poured another, spilling some on his stopwatch lying on the table. 12 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds.