Vintage Patterson Candy Moonlight Mellos Advertising Tin

Canada’s Patterson Candy Company was opened on Yonge Street in Toronto in 1888 by John Patterson and Robert Wilson but was originally called the Boston Candy Company. In 1891, Wilson left the company and it became The Patterson Candy Company eventually expanding to Queen Street West. The company was famous for Full O’Cream and Wildfire bars and once had Canada’s largest soda fountain. I would love to have visited.

I learned about the Patterson Candy Company only after I found this large Moonlight Mellos tin, which reads “Fluffy Marshmallows That Melt in the Mouth” and “Good for Baking Topping Cakes, Eating and Toasting.” As I am writing this text, with the tin sitting on my desk beside me, I can almost smell the marshmallow scent. Do you think there could really be a remnant of the smell in the tin after what could be a hundred years or is it simply a figment of my imagination?

Anyway, the tin is fairly big, measuring 10 1/2 inches in diameter across the lid and 5 1/4 inches tall and would have held a lot of marshmallows! It is blue and features an art deco-style with a fairy swinging on a rope before a large yellow moon and red and yellow party decorations. This tin and pretty well all of the others that I see online that are probably a hundred years old, shows lots of wear and discoloration, even on the inside. I definitely would not store food in it anymore but I would consider it a great addition to a collection of antique tins. The one shown here was mine and is sold but you can click here to search for another Moonlight Mellos tin on eBay. With any luck there might be another one available today.

You never know
what treasures I might have

in store for you!

Brenda

Treasures By Brenda

More Vintage Items:

Vintage in my eBay store.
Canadian Artist Elizabeth Hoey Owl Art Tile
The History of the Fanny Pack
The History of the Strawberry Shortcake Doll

Handsome Booths' Real Old Willow China

Reportedly, Booths' REAL OLD WILLOW is their most popular pattern. It features an eternally-popular blue and white color scheme with oriental pictures and a blue geometric rim and scalloped edge. 

The pattern was made for most of the 20th century, finally ceasing production in 1999. The pieces I have in my eBay store are as shown on this magnificent coffee pot. They are from the brown series as they do not have gilding on the rim and the inner band is done in brown only. 

Apparently, the first pieces with brown were made around the war years of 1939 to 1946 when gold was in short supply. Both the pattern number, A8025, and the patent mark indicate that this piece was likely made between 1944 and 1981. Previously owned by a friend of mine in her 70s and before that by her parents, I assume that these are earlier rather than later pieces.

There is apparently some confusion about the dates and the information on this page is offered for the sake of general interest and not because I am an expert in fine china. I always enjoy learning something new about a vintage item. 

Regardless of when it was made, this is a pretty blue and white china set. It is in my eBay store, looking for a new home. You will find my pieces of Old Blue Willow here.

You never know

what I might have in store 

for you!

Brenda

Quick Links:

Check out the Old Blue Willow pieces in my eBay store.

More about Booths' Real Old Willow pattern.

Antiques Roadshow 2014 Calendar

Love, LOVE, love this Antiques Roadshow 2014 Daily Calendar through which you can enjoy "discovering America's hidden treasures" every single day!  Each page is fairly simple but at the same time interesting for those who either work buying and selling antiques or for those who are addicted to this and the multitude of other thrifting television programs.

Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
You never know what
I might have in store for you!

Click here to order your Antiques Roadshow calendar from Amazon.

Canadian Pickers Television Show

SPOILER ALERT! This post discusses the places the Canadian Pickers visit and the people they meet on the first episode of Season 4.

I just watched what may be the best-ever episode of the television show Canadian Pickers. The show always resonates with me because it's filmed in Canada and I'm a Canadian and because I have travelled to many of the places that hosts Scott Cozens and Sheldon Smithens visit. However, there was something about this show that made me really, really, really, want to go picking, shopping, thrifting or whatever you call it right NOW...

I love how the show started out in a barber shop in Toronto that celebrates the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey team in full color, even though hockey is not my favorite sport.

I also enjoyed the second visit in Toronto to the kind of antique store that I would like to shop in, one that's filled to the rafters with stuff including odds and ends and interesting bits and pieces. Both Scott and Sheldon met the challenge of finding a great item for resale purposes at a cost of $50. I am not sure I could have met the challenge but it would have been fun to try.

Next the show took us to visit a couple who built a home of logs. The couple also constructed the garage to look like an old-time service station. How cool is that? I'm not so interested in the stuff that the Canadian Pickers picked here but the location was pretty interesting and I think it would make a good set up for an eBay seller, but I digress…

Next we visited the home of a 16-year-old who both collects for himself and operates a business buying and selling antiques. We enter a suburban home not unlike the one that I live in, and there are no collectible items in sight. It turns out that the young man keeps all of his antiques in his bedroom. If you ever get the chance to see this episode, prepare to be amazed. I think it is really great what this young man has learned and accomplished so far about antiques and about negotiating. In the show footage, he appeared to have no trouble matching wits with the Canadian Pickers.

It was a fabulous episode of an always interesting show. If you haven't tuned into the Canadian Pickers, which I believe is known as the Cash Cowboys in some markets, what are you waiting for? At each pick you will meet some interesting people, learn a great story and uncover some history.

I know from experience that it is not as easy to gather a bunch of great places to “pick” as this show made it look. On a recent vacation, when we had a few hours to shop, we struggled to find some good stops because we had not done any advance planning. We did not come home empty-handed, but we weren't as successful as we could have been.  

We did find some collectible Alexander Keith's products as well as some beautiful handmade baby quilts, which are nothing like what you usually see the Canadian Pickers picking but nevertheless are still quite interesting and will make a beautiful addition to a baby's nursery either as a crip or lap quilt or as a wall hanging. As an added bonus, these purchases will pay for the gas for our Nova Scotia vacation.

How about you? Do you watch any of the shows about antiques, collectibles, auctions, collecting, picking or even just vintage-style? Which ones would you recommend?

EDITED 2019 to note that the Canadian Pickers program finished and the Facebook page wound down around 2014.

Brenda

Treasures By Brenda

You never know what treasures

I might have in store for you!