Early railway poster and Hudson’s Bay scrips up for auction
The population of western Canada in 1883 was about 125,000. But where most would have seen a vast, empty wilderness, the Canadian Pacific Railway saw “The Golden Northwest, a home for all people.”
It promoted its vision with a colourful poster declaring the C.P.R. was “The Grand Transcontinental Highway from the Cities of the East to Winnipeg and Manitoba’s Boundless Wheatfields.”
The Roman goddess Ceres gave her approval by posing in the poster, a scythe and a stack of wheat in her left arm, a torch held aloft by her right. The torch beamed light on the Golden Northwest and the C.P.R. line, which went from coast-to-coast.
The Last Spike completing the western end of the line at Craigellachie wasn’t driven until Nov. 7, 1885. Vancouver Island also seems to have vanished in the depiction of the Golden Northwest in the poster.
Accuracy aside, it’s a beautiful image, a classic piece of Canadiana. And on June 27, a rare original copy of the poster will be auctioned by Vancouver’s All Nations Coins and Stamps.
Brian Grant Duff of All Nations said somebody recently found the three-foot-tall, one-foot-wide poster on Vancouver Island, discovered it was rare, and decided to put it up for sale.
The poster is a bit rough — there are several creases, which indicate it was folded at one point. There have also been a couple of crude attempts at restoration.
But the colours are still vibrant, 132 years after it was printed, and the crinkles give a little more character. It looks old, a feeling enhanced by its frame, which appears to be from the 1940s.
“A poster like this in great condition is probably worth a thousand bucks,” said Grant Duff. “I’m estimating it at $500. We just don’t know how many of these have survived.”
The poster was done by the American Bank Note company in New York, one of the top lithographers of the time. Grant Duff points out C.P.R. bigwig Cornelius William Van Horne is identified as the general manager of the railway on the bottom, his job title while he was supervising the C.P.R.’s construction.
Grant Duff loves the wonky globe, which seems to have been drawn by someone who had no idea what western Canada looked like.
“The map is terrible,” he laughs. “Hudson’s Bay doesn’t look like it’s connected to anything, Vancouver Island is missing and Newfoundland and the Maritimes are either not there or misshapen.
“It’s almost like they hadn’t made the transition from the 19th century (maps). Maybe the railway was going to reveal it all.”
The Golden Northwest poster isn’t the only rare Canadiana that Grant Duff has for sale. In the coming weeks, he will be auctioning off several “scrips” from three Hudson’s Bay trading posts in northern British Columbia.
“A scrip is basically nongovernment issued, unofficial or semi-official currency,” he explains. “It looks like they come from the pre-World War I era. The historical record, which is scant, says that they were not supposed to be issued — they were not authorized by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
“But the poor guys running the post needed some form of money as people were trading. So this is possibly locally created scrip.”
The scrips are very small, like an old-fashioned ticket at a movie theatre. They come in four different denominations, each with a different colour. The 25-cent scrips were white, 50 cents were green, $1 was red and $5 was blue.
The scrips come from the descendants of Sydney Hodgkinson, who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1908 to 1935.
Grant Duff auctioned the first scrip in the cache on June 20. It was estimated at $100, but wound up selling for $1,099. Six bidders from across Canada faced off over the scrip, which appeals to both Hudson’s Bay Company and B.C. collectors.
The rarity of the scrips makes them valuable.
The All Nations weekly auction will be conducted online at: allnationsstampandcoin.com/auction.html