The Canadian Trade, Information, Advertisements, Etc.

[dognose]

FRED CRUMPTON

81, 83 and 85 King Street East, Toronto


Last month Mr Grose, one of the private dectectives connected with the secret service of the Customs Department, visited the different ports in the Dominion, among them Montreal, Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, Hamilton, Windsor and Toronto. The detective visited this city on the 26th of December, and made but one seizures. This consisted of two gold watches and eleven lady's gold rings, the whole property, amounting to between $300 to $400, belonging to F. Crumpton, a jeweler. No. 83 King-street East. On calling upon the latter gentleman he stated that he purchased the goods from H. W. Patterson, of Boston, and the reason they were seized was that they were undoubtedly smuggled. Crumpton had not paid for the goods and therefore was not the loser. The value of the goods seized at the other ports could not be ascertained.

Source: The Trader - February 1882


FRED CRUMPTON'S NOTED WATCH AND JEWELLERY HOUSE, 81, 83 and 85 King Street East. - One of the noted houses in Toronto engaged in the important line of trade of the watchmaker and jeweller is that of Mr. Fred Crumpton, whose store is located at Nos. 81, 83 and 85 King Street East. This concern was founded nearly fifty years ago by Messrs. J.G. and Joseph Crumpton, and its history since that time has been an unbroken record of prosperity. Ten years ago Mr. Fred Crumpton succeeded to the ownership of the house, and, under his able control, the business has become one of the most important in this line in Toronto. The store is 40 x 60 feet in dimensions, and is one of the most attractive on this great thoroughfare. It Is perfect in all its appointments, and is elegantly fitted up with fine plate-glass show-windows and show-cases, cabinets, etc.. in which is displayed a very valuable stock which has no superior for quality and excellence, while the prices quoted for all goods are the lowest consistent with their value. The assortment embraces the finest and best French Swiss, English and American watches and clocks, diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, turquoises and other precious stones, bronzes, silverware, jewellery in great variety etc. Mr. Crumpton is sole agent for the celebrated Aurora and Rockford American watches which are warranted to be the best in the market. Special manufacturing and repairing are given careful attention. Five assistants are employed, and all work is performed under the supervision of the proprietor. Orders are promptly executed and at lowest prices. The house also handles electro-silicon nature's preparation for the promotion of cleanliness, and which commands large sales. Mr. Crumpton is a native of Toronto, and is highly esteemed by the community. He has spared no expense in getting out an elegant Christmas card which he will be pleased to give to any visitor.

Source: Illustrated Toronto - The Queen City of Canada - Its Past Present and Future - 1890


Jeweler Fred Crumpton, of 83 King St. East, Toronto, is sending out some of the most artistic Christmas advertising cards that we have ever seen. We are proud of the set which ornaments the walls of our sanctum.

Source: The Trader and Canadian Jeweller - December 1890

Trev.

[dognose]

HENRY CARSON

251, Upper Water Street, later, 203, Lockman Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia


Henry Carson - Halifax, NS - 1871


The Wire Window Guard was not Put Up

Halifax, N. S., Sept. 23.—Henry Carson's jewelry store, 203 Lockman St.. was broken into last night and a number of watches, rings, etc., were stolen. Before the window was broken a quantity of putty, or white lead, was placed on the glass to prevent any noise being heard.

The window usually has a wire guard on it, but last night Mr. Carson, not feeling well, retired early, and his wife closed the shop without putting up the guard. The case is in the hands of the police.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 30th September 1891

Trev.

[dognose]

W.A.J. WHITEFORD

25, St. Lawrence Main Street, Montreal

W.A.J. Whiteford, Watchmaker, Jeweller and Optician, 25 St. Lawrence Main Street.–A well-known businessman in Montreal is Mr. W.A.J. Whiteford, who has had a long and successful career in the watchmaking and Jewellry trade. He has a very desirable location at No. 25 St. Lawrence Main Street, wherein will be found a full line of fine gold watches in prices to suit purchasers. Also a full assortment of silver watches, gold rings and general jewellry goods. A speciality is made of repairing and all work is performed by skilled artisans under Mr. Whiteford's personal supervision. He is also an accomplished optician and keeps in stock a full supply of all the best quality of English, French, German and American spectacles and eye glasses, and adjusts them to suit his patrons. Mr. Whiteford has resided in Montreal many years, and by his industry and talents has built up his present prosperous business. In the same building his son, Mr. Edgar Whiteford, a young man of much energy and ability, conducts a book and stationery business, including mercantile stationery, ruling, printing, account book manufacturing and relief stamping. Also works by standard authors, and current literature of the day.

Source: Industries of Canada - City of Montreal - Historical and Descriptive Review - 1886

Trev.

[dognose]

HUTCHINSON

2, Imperial Buildings, later, 70, Prince William Street, St. John, New Brunswick


Hutchinson - St.John, New Brunswick - 1872

The origin of this business is with William Hutchinson who learned and carried out the trade at Londonderry, Ireland. William's son, William, had sailed with his family from the old country to join his brother who was in business in Philadelphia, but was shipwrecked off Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and unwilling to risk another voyage they settled at St. John, New Brunswick, setting up shop in the old Coffee House on the corner of King Street and Market Square in 1819. About a year later, William was joined by his brother, George, and a partnership was formed as William & George Hutchinson.

George left the business some years after and set up in Dock Street, William continued on his own until his retirement in 1856, when his son, George Hutchinson jnr. and his uncle, George, purchased the business and carried it on as G. & G. Hutchinson. In 1860, George retired and the business carried on by George Hutchinson jnr. alone.

Trev.

[dognose]

WILLIAM ALEXANDER

350 Yonge Street, Toronto



William Alexander, Practical Watchmaker and Jeweller, 350 Yonge Street. –As a centre for the trade in watches, jewellery, etc., Toronto has long made an exceptionally favorable showing, and here can be found all the latest styles in jewellery, and the finest American and imported watches. Among the most active and enterprising members of the trade is Mr. William Alexander, whose handsome store is so centrally located at No. 350 Yonge Street, near Elm. Mr. Alexander was born in this city, and has here been permanently identified with this branch of business, having founded his present establishment some eighteen years ago. He brings to bear the widest range of experience, and is in every sense of the word a practical watchmaker and jeweller. Mr. Alexander carries a large and judiciously assorted stock of gold and silver watches of the best makers, and which he sells as low, and in many cases lower than elsewhere. His lines of jewellery are always fashionable, including the newest styles in solid gold and plated goods. He gives special attention to the remounting of diamonds and precious stones, promptly executes repairs of all kinds, while he has achieved an enviable reputation for the skill manifested in the thorough repair of fine watches, chronometers, and other complicated movements. Mr. Alexander is universally popular and respected, and none have more worthily achieved an enduring and acknowledged success.

Source: Industries of Canada - City of Montreal - Historical and Descriptive Review - 1886

Trev.

[dognose]

GEORGE LAMONTAGNE

Saint Roch, Quebec


Geo. Lamontagne - Quebec - 1875

Trev.

[dognose]

S. BREADNER, later, BREADNER MANUFACTURING. Co., later, BREADNER Co.Ltd.

Carleton Place, Ontario, later, Bank Street, Ottawa, later, Hull, Quebec


S. Breadner - Ontario - 1900

The business of Samuel Breadner was founded in the later years of the 19th century.


Samuel Breadner has moved from Parry Sound, Ont., to Carleton Place.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 9th May 1894


Mr. S. Breadner, of Carleton Place, Ont., has again secured the right to sell wire jewelry in the Main Building of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition As all of the goods thus sold by Mr. Breadner are manufactured by himself, the jewelers who visit the Exhibition will find it to their advantage to look him up and see not only the kind of goods he manufactures, but how they take with the public. We think it will open the eyes of a good many of our readers to see the public pick up this class of jewelry and how popular it is.

Source: The Canadian Jeweller - September 1900



Breadner Manufacturing Co. - Ottawa - 1900


Mr. S. Breadner, manufacturing jeweler, of Carlton Place, has removed his business to Ottawa, Out., where, with greatly increased and improved facilities, he will carry it on in future. He has changed the style of his firm to The Breadner Manufacturing Co., by which name it will be known in future. The trade will please make a note of this change of address.

Source: The Canadian Jeweller - November 1900





The firm's name was restyled to Breadner Co.Ltd. in 1930. During WWII they shifted production to the manufacture of badges and insignia for the Canadian armed forces. Following WWII, Samuel Breadner passed the business to his son, Jack Breadner. They relocated to Hull, Quebec in 1956, and in later years were more well known for their souvenir spoons, having, over the years, acquired many dies from various Canadian companies.

See: http://www.925-1000.com/canadiansilver_01.html

Trev.

[dognose]

P. GENDRON

1, Rue Saint Jean, Quebec


P. Gendron - Quebec - 1853

This is very likely to be Joseph-Prudent Gendron, who was noted as the Master of the clockmaker, jeweller, inventor, and politician Cyrille Duquet. Duquet, upon finishing his term with Gendron, took over his former Master's premises on Rue Saint-Jean after Gendron decided to relocate in 1862, sharing the premises with the jeweller, Simon Levy.

Trev.

[dognose]

CYRILLE DUQUET

1, Rue La Fabrique, Haute-Ville, Quebec



Cyrille Duquet - Quebec - 1868



Duquet & Cie. - Quebec - 1875


DUQUET, CYRILLE, clockmaker, jeweller, inventor, and politician; b. 31 March 1841 at Quebec, son of Joseph Duquet, a labourer, and Madeleine Therrien (Terrien); m. there 22 Feb. 1865 Adélaïde Saint-Laurent, daughter of Jean-Baptiste Saint-Laurent and Adélaïde Gazzo (Gazeau), and they had 16 children; d. there 1 Dec. 1922.
After studying with the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Cyrille Duquet was apprenticed at the age of 13 to goldsmith Joseph-Prudent Gendron, whose shop was on Rue Saint-Jean in Quebec City. When Gendron decided to move in 1862, Duquet’s apprenticeship was coming to an end. He promptly approached the owner of the building with a proposal to go into business for himself at the same address. An agreement was reached, and for a time Duquet shared his premises with Simon Levy, who sold watches and jewellery.
Duquet was undoubtedly reliable and hard-working. He also had a passion for science. Not content just to assemble and install clocks or to make and sell jewellery, he attempted to attract attention by displaying his inventions and creations in his store window. Duquet liked to dazzle, astonish, and fascinate, but he also had a practical mind. With Professor François-Alexandre-Hubert La Rue*, he designed a magnetic sand separator in 1868—69. Around 1870 Duquet invented a device that made it possible to monitor the exact time at which watchmen checking the fire alarm telegraph system reached various points in their rounds. The patent was purchased that year by the New Haven Clock Company in the United States. He also conceived the idea of installing electric clocks in steeples and in the towers of high buildings.
It was Duquet’s telephone receiver, however, that brought him fame. He reportedly corresponded with Alexander Graham Bell on the progress of their respective experiments, although none of their letters has thus far been located. What is indeed certain is that Duquet obtained a patent on 1 Feb. 1878 for a number of modifications “giving more facility for the transmission of sound and adding to its acoustic properties,” and in particular for the design of a new apparatus combining the speaker and receiver in a single unit. After a few experiments in linking his store on Rue de la Fabrique (where Rue Saint-Jean begins) and a second store — which he and Louis Dalaire owned — in Saint-Roch ward, and in linking Ottawa and Montreal, he began to set up a few regular telephone lines, including one with Spencer Wood, the residence of the lieutenant governor, and another with the Couvent Jésus-Marie in Sillery, where one of his daughters was studying.
Convinced that Duquet was using Bell’s invention, Charles Fleetford Sise*, vice-president of the Canadian Telephone Company, ordered him in a letter dated 31 Dec. 1880 to “desist from the manufacture of such telephones.” Stung to the quick, Duquet replied on 7 Jan. 1881 that “the patent you are making such a fuss about has expired and is null and void.” “Kindly cease your threats of a lawsuit, which do not frighten me in the least,” he added, and he concluded, “If you want an unchallengeable patent, I advise you to buy mine . . . as soon as possible, because the longer you wait, the more it will cost you.” On 11 May 1882 the Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of the Canadian Telephone Company (which was merged that year into the Bell Telephone Company of Canada). From the $5,000 claimed on 1 April 1881, the company had reduced its “demand for damages to the sum of ten dollars,” “being convinced that the Defendant acted in good faith,” as judge William Collis Meredith explained.
The real reason the plaintiffs had reduced their claim to such an extent was not Duquet’s good faith, but rather the company’s interest in his various improvements. On 15 May 1882 Duquet sold his “instruments, patents, patent rights, licence agreements, contracts, plant, apparatus, chattels and good will” for $2,100 and abandoned all projects related to telephones. His fame, however, opened a new world to him: politics. François Langelier*, a prominent Liberal lawyer, had just come onto the municipal scene. As city councillor for Saint-Louis ward, Duquet would be associated with him from 1884 to 1890.
This was a period when the face of the city was changing. Sidewalks were being laid down or repaired, streets were being widened or paved, and the water system was being altered and extended by contractor Horace Jansen Beemer*. Between 1886 and 1889 street lighting was converted from gas to electricity. Duquet loved this kind of challenge. But it was in the realm of electricity that he devoted himself wholeheartedly. He took sweet revenge on Sigismund Mohr*, who had testified against him in 1882. As manager of the Quebec and Levis Electric Light Company, Mohr set up a network of electric lighting whose costs were under constant review by Duquet.
In 1890 Duquet concentrated on his own business affairs. He sold his house at 153 Grande Allée to John Breakey*, intending to take up residence above the new store being built for him on Rue Saint-Jean, at the foot of Rue de la Fabrique, on the site of his first shop.
Perhaps Duquet had undertaken too much or the economic situation may have been too bleak. In any case, he was on the verge of bankruptcy in July 1896. He had creditors in New York, Boston, Toronto, Hamilton, and, of course, Montreal and Quebec. At the head of the line was Moïse Schwob, with his claim for $9,854.81 of the $19,381.93 owed to non-preferential creditors. To this sum must be added the amount due a preferential creditor, the Quebec Permanent Building Society, for a total debt of $31,825.93. On 5 July Duquet turned over his property, which was valued at $42,448.20, including $19,447.78 for his business and $18,500 for his buildings. At a special meeting of creditors on 28 Sept. 1896, “a resolution was moved by M. Schwob, seconded by Augustin Gaboury, and carried unanimously, that, since Mr Cyrille Duquet had got from his creditors an agreement to accept twenty-five cents on the dollar,” he should be authorized to resume “full possession and enjoyment of his property.”
In July 1904 Duquet attempted to make a comeback on the municipal scene. He won election as alderman for Palais ward by a narrow majority of ten votes, defeating dentist Henri-Edmond Casgrain*, his neighbour on Rue Saint-Jean and more particularly his rival as a well-known inventor. This time he took his seat along with Simon-Napoléon Parent*, who was both mayor of the city and Liberal premier of the province. The newspaper L’Événement, now Conservative again [see Louis-Joseph Demers*], listed him as one of Parent’s opponents. In its 17 Feb. 1906 issue, it ranked him among the “reform candidates” in the forthcoming election. This time he won a resounding victory, with a majority of 138. Georges Garneau* was also elected to the city council, and he was immediately approached to be the next mayor, replacing Parent, who had left this office in January.
At council meetings Duquet was quite spirited. He was always attracting comment because of his speeches, which were mostly out of order. By joining forces with some 20 mlas who were bringing suit against L’Événement, he eventually turned it against him and he was defeated in the election of February 1908 by Lawrence Arthur Dumoulin Cannon*.
At the age of 67 Duquet could now afford to take stock, to recall the difficulties he had encountered, and the controversies — in particular one in March 1871, when an artisan named P.-E. Poulin had publicly accused him of wrongfully taking credit for creating a chain and cross for the archbishop of Quebec. There was also his venture in the spring of 1887 into the production of natural gas in Louiseville, which had left him, when he went bankrupt, with 400 worthless shares in the Compagnie de Gaz Combustible. But on the other hand, he could walk proudly about his city, remembering how it had changed, admiring the residence built for him on the Grande Allée, the other house where his business was located, and all the clocks on the most beautiful buildings of Quebec, including the city hall, the legislative building, the customs house, and St Matthew’s Church. And his name was on the faces of clocks that had movements made in the United States.
From now on Duquet could devote his time to music, his business, and his family. Sixteen children had been born from 1866 to 1887, and eight of them were still alive. His eldest, Eva, had made him a grandfather several times over, much to his delight. His daughter Alice entered the noviciate of the SÅ“urs Missionnaires de Notre-Dame d’Afrique. His son Georges-Henri chose an artistic career, while Arthur assisted him in his business.
Tireless, curious, tenacious, and at times a dreamer, Duquet was a self-made man of a high order. Among his boundless interests, scientific and technical advances fascinated and stimulated him, and they held few secrets for him. Duquet had achieved the feat of reconciling the arts and business, science and politics. Fiercely independent, he became a legendary figure through his creations and inventions.

Denis Vaugeois

[Jeanne Hardy, the wife of Arthur Duquet, who managed his father’s business until 1933, prepared a short biography of Cyrille Duquet which, as she stated, was drawn from family tradition and from contemporary newspaper articles, including pieces by Damase Potvin*, Lorenzo Saint-Mars, and Mgr Victor Tremblay. This unpublished biography of around 10 pages, and several other documents concerning Cyrille Duquet, is held by Denise Duquet (Lamonde) of Sainte-Foy, Qué. A number of useful documents are found in the Bell Canada Information Resource Centre (Montreal), Bell Canada Hist. Coll., 21732, and several articles on Duquet and on the telephone are available in the general collection of the Soc. Hist. du Saguenay (Chicoutimi, Qué.). A steam-engine Duquet invented in 1865 is at the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière (La Pocatière, Qué.); the mace of the Assemblée Nationale du Québec is among the best knows of his works as a silversmith. One building bears his name, 1500 Charest Boulevard Ouest in Quebec City, the headquarters of the communications branch of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. Duquet’s building on Rue Saint-Jean, which consisted of three storeys, was demolished to make way for a bank, and his residence on the Grande Allée has been replaced by the Loews Le Concorde Hotel. In 1983 the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique named a new chair of computer and information science in his honour. d.v.]
ANQ-Q, CE301-S1, 31 mars 1841; CE301-S97, 22 févr. 1865; Index BMS, dist. judiciaire de Québec, Notre-Dame de Québec, 2 déc. 1922; P1000, D2396; TP11, S1, SS2, SSS1, dossiers 170 (1891), 730 (1896), 1251 (1885), 1338 (1889), 1411 (1889), 1536 (1873), 1544 (1881), 1955 (1891), 2462 (1890).
AVQ, QD4-1A, 1662—63; QD4-1G, 1739-02—05; QP1-4, 40/0004, 62/0005.
Monique Duval, “Québec doit le téléphone . . . à Cyrille Duquet,” Le Soleil, 11 mai 1977.
L'Événement, 13, 17, 20 févr. 1906; 5 nov. 1907; 10, 18 févr. 1908.
Le Journal de Québec, 29 nov. 1866; 26 févr. 1868; 27, 31 mars 1871.
Le Soleil, 16 févr. 1904.
“Orfèvrerie: établissement de M. Cyrille Duquet,” in Annuaire du commerce et de l'industrie de Québec . . . (Québec), 1873: 44—46.
René Lagacé, “Cyrille Duquet, inventeur de renom,” Concorde (Québec), 7 (1956), nos.6—7: 9—11.
Alyne Le Bel, “Le magicien de la rue Saint-Jean: l'inventeur Cyrille Duquet,” Cap-aux-Diamants (Québec), 4 (1988—89), no.4: 45—48.
William Patten, Pioneering the telephone in Canada (Montreal, 1926)

Text reproduced from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=42046

© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval


Cyrille Duquet, Ltd., jewelers, of Quebec, has been incorporated with Arthur Duquet as managing director.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 15th November 1922


Cyrille Duquet, head of the jewelry firm of Cyrille Duquet, Limitee, Quebec, died recently.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 13th December 1922

Trev.

[dognose]

ANSELME HARDY

66, Rue St. Jean, Haute-Ville, Quebec


Anselme Hardy - Quebec - 1857

Anselme Hardy married Louise Dussault at Quebec in 1854.

Maker's mark 'A·H' accompanied with English style pseudo marks.

Trev.

[dognose]

LASH & COMPANY

13, King Street West, Toronto


Lash & Company - Toronto - 1864

An interior view of Lash & Co.'s Toronto store from 1872:



Trev.

[dognose]

E.M. TROWERN

171, Yonge Street, Toronto

E. M. Trowern, Wholesale and Retail Gold and Silver Jewellery Manufacturer, 171 Yonge St., East Side, 2nd Door South of Queen. –The manufacturing retail jewellers' trade in Toronto is very extensive, and some of the best artisans in this line can here be found ; among them and ranking first is E. M. Trowern, who founded, along with his late partner A. H. Welch, in 1880, the establishment well-known as Welch & Trowern. On January of the present year ( 1886), E. M. Trowern bought his partner out, and has since then carried on the business alone. By strict attention to business, and an intimate experience in all its various branches as a watchmaker and working jeweller, Mr. Trowern has built up a substantial and very fine business. In the factory, two flats 75 x 20 feet in dimensions, all kinds of pure gold and solid silver jewellery are manufactured to fill orders, or for sale in the beautiful store below ; any design in gold or silver, no matter how intricate, is turned out with the utmost perfection, E. M. Trowern making this branch the leading feature ; here all kinds of the most valuable watches are repaired and adjusted by thoroughly skilled workmen, and no apprentice or second grade workmen are employed, so that the best watches can be left with him and repaired properly. There are three departments in this business, viz. : manufacturing and engraving, watch repairing, and wholesale and retail ; mounting diamonds and precious stones, making gold chains, brooches, ear-rings and all the latest novelties, are executed here equal to any foreign house, and the excellent taste that E. M. Trowern displays, as evidenced by the constant amount of work always on hand, shows that his natural adaptation has been applied in the proper direction. He was born in Toronto in 1858, and educated in Upper Canada College, and by integrity and industry, added to his business qualities, has attained great prominence among the leading jewellers in Toronto.

Source: Industries of Canada - City of Montreal - Historical and Descriptive Review - 1886

Trev.

[dognose]

R.T. McGEAGH

344, Yonge Street, Toronto


R.T. McGeagh - Toronto - 1866

Trev.

[dognose]

ROBERT HENDERY

Montreal


R. Hendery - Montreal - 1861

HENDERY, ROBERT, silversmith, merchant, and silver manufacturer; b. 14 Dec. 1814 on Corfu (Kérkira, Greece); d. 20 July 1897 in Montreal.
According to family tradition, Robert Hendery’s father — whose name was possibly Robert — was a surgeon with the British army on Corfu at the time of his son’s birth. He subsequently returned to his native Scotland, where young Robert trained as a silversmith. About 1837 Robert immigrated to Montreal; there he either entered the employ of George Savage and Son, the city’s largest retail jeweller and silversmith or, more likely, became a journeyman to Peter Bohle, who made silver flatware and other tableware for the Savage firm. On 16 May 1843 Hendery, a recent widower with at least one son, married Sarah Maysenhoelder, the daughter of another Montreal silversmith, John Maysenhoelder; they would have six children.
By 1851 Hendery was in partnership with Bohle in a shop on Rue Craig. In 1855 they exhibited at the universal exposition in Paris, but the partnership ended late that year or in early 1856, with Hendery succeeding to the business. At the provincial exhibition of 1858 he displayed “medals, cups, also a fine fish knife and a fork.” His output, however, progressively shifted to include hollow-ware of grander and more original invention, often with elaborate embossed and chased ornament. Before long, he became the city’s major producer of presentation pieces and trophies, and he turned increasingly to an expanding market for church silver. He also tried silver sculpture, and created many of the relatively few Canadian examples.
This shift in production coincided with the entry into Hendery’s employ of a young designer and silver chaser from England, Felix Louis Paris. Steeped in the styles and techniques of the leading English firms, Paris enabled Hendery to compete on a firmer footing with their exports, which dominated the colonial market. Paris worked for Hendery for at least two decades and married one of his daughters in 1867.
By the time of the provincial exhibition of 1863 in Montreal, Hendery was without peer as a manufacturing silversmith in the city. Above all, he was reputed as a maker of presentation pieces. His display included tea and coffee services, cups, goblets, and centrepieces which were praised by the Montreal Gazette as being “the most convincing proof that Canada need not in future import presentation sets from abroad.” The master-work was a piece of art silver, made for presentation to George-Étienne Cartier and consisting of a triangular base enriched with various national emblems, a central structure in the form of a maple tree with branches supporting various dishes, and a sculptural grouping of three historical figures: “Jacques Cartier, representing the first of navigators; Montcalm [Louis-Joseph de Montcalm], the first of French generals; Bishop Plessis [Joseph-Octave Plessis], the first Church representative in Canada.”
Hendery, a member of the Church of England, was one of the first Canadian silversmiths to make any quantity of Anglican communion plate. He had distinguished himself in 1861 with a seven-piece communion service for Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal. Gothic Revival in style, it faithfully reflected the formulae of the Ecclesiological Society in England; it may be the oldest service produced in Canada under Tractarian influence. In 1864 Hendery executed a communion service of classical style for the Church of St James the Apostle and in 1880 the metropolitical cross, or pastoral staff, of the metropolitan of the Anglican ecclesiastical province of Canada. He also made much silver for the Catholic Church, having succeeded Paul Morand in this regard. He even made Jewish ritual silver, including two pairs of rimmonim (adornments for the Torah) for Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue.
The steady expansion of Hendery’s enterprise led him in 1866 to open a retail store separate from his factory, and the firm became Robert Hendery and Company. By 1870—71, however, Hendery had abandoned the store and his business enterprise was confined to its earlier role as “maker to the trade” only. In 1877 his firm produced the Stephens testimonial, a piece of art silver designed by Paris. Conceived in terms of monumentality and classical restraint, it was presented to George Washington Stephens by a group of Montreal citizens in recognition of his ten years’ service as an alderman.
On 4 July 1887 Hendery took into partnership John Leslie, a fellow Scot and an apprentice and employee with him since 1864. Much earlier, Hendery had begun to extend his market beyond the province of Quebec, but the firm of Hendery and Leslie expanded it considerably, mainly in Ontario. The firm’s reputation waxed steadily as it continued to manufacture commonplace tableware side by side with custom-made creations of original inspiration. An outstanding example in the latter category is the sculptural Carslake Trophy, which was awarded in 1890 at the Province of Quebec Rifle Association competition. The Gazette praised it as “one of the most magnificent trophies ever made in Canada.” Artistic distinction was also maintained in church plate, a first-rate example of which is a communion service presented in 1896 to Christ’s Church Cathedral, Hamilton, Ont., by the family of Bishop Charles Hamilton.
Through his various firms, Hendery had become unrivalled as a maker of silverware in Canada. Yet his actual business establishment was always relatively small; in 1861 he had 6 employees, and in 1894 approximately 20. Eventually his health failed and the management of Hendery and Leslie was transferred to the junior partner. In 1895 Hendery sold his share to Leslie and retired. Two years later the firm was purchased by Henry Birks and Sons.

Ross Fox

[The author wishes to thank Andrea Kirkpatrick, Winnie Kirkpatrick, and Angela Houstoun for research assistance. r.f.]
ANQ-M, CE1—75, 22 juill. 1897; CE1—126, 16 mai 1843, 1er nov. 1844, 26 août 1845. Les Beaux-Arts (Montréal), 1er juin 1863. Canadian Churchman, 19 Aug. 1897. Canadian Illustrated News (Montreal), 19 Sept. 1874, 8 July 1876, 19 May 1877, 25 Sept. 1880. Dominion Illustrated (Montreal), 10 May 1890. Gazette (Montreal), 7 Oct. 1858; 17 Sept. 1863; 21, 23 July 1897. Montreal Transcript, 29 May, 7 Oct. 1858; 28 March 1861; 18 Sept. 1863; 9 May 1864. R. [A. C.] Fox, Presentation pieces and trophies from the Henry Birks Collection of Canadian Silver (exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1985). Raymond Boily, Monnaies, médailles et jetons au Canada ([Québec], 1980). J. E. Langdon, Canadian silversmiths, 1700—1900 (Toronto, 1966); Canadian silversmiths & their marks, 1667—1867 (Lunenberg, Vt., 1960). Ramsay Traquair, The old silver of Quebec (Toronto, 1940). Honor de Pencier, “Early treasures: the John and Eustella Langdon Collection of Canadian silver,” Rotunda (Toronto), 15 (1982—83), no.1: 4—11.

Text reproduced from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography - http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e ... d_nbr=6154
© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval


R. Hendery - Montreal - 1887

Trev.

[dognose]

M. OLLENDORFF

162, Notre Dame Street, Montreal


M. Ollendorff - Montreal - 1861

Trev.

[dognose]

JOHN B. BENNETT

145, Granville Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia


J.B. Bennett - Halifax, NS - 1873


J.B. Bennett - Halifax, NS - 1875

Trev.

[dognose]

RICHARD UPHAM MARSTERS

Halifax, Nova Scotia


MARSTERS, RICHARD UPHAM, clock- and watchmaker, jeweller, silversmith, and inventor; b. 1787 in Onslow, N.S., son of Nathaniel Marsters and Mary Upham; m. 7 March 1819, in Halifax, Ann McKay, widow of a Scottish merchant, and they had at least one daughter; d. 25 Jan. 1845 in Falmouth, N.S.
According to a genealogical record compiled by William Marsters Brown, a cousin of Richard Upham Marsters, the Marsters family were English Jews who emigrated to Massachusetts. Richard’s paternal grandparents left Salem, Mass., to settle in Falmouth soon after 1760. The family was probably related to that of William Marsters, clock- and watchmakers of Holborn, London, who removed to St John’s in 1787 and thence to the United States in 1818. Through the marriage of his father’s sister Deborah, Marsters was cousin not only to William Marsters Brown but to Michael Septimus Brown, the noted silversmith.
At the age of 14 Marsters was apprenticed to David Page, a silversmith and watchmaker of Onslow, N.S. By 31 May 1817 he had opened a business in Halifax as a clock- and watchmaker, offering as well the repair of jewellery and of compasses and quadrants. He noted that he had had “many years of practical knowledge in the line of his profession.” This experience had likely been acquired in Falmouth, for there is some evidence to suggest that after completing his apprenticeship he had moved to his grandfather’s home. An advertisement of October 1819 promoted his regular services and also informed fellow watchmakers that “any kind of Watch Wheels will be made and gilded agreeably to order, upon short notice.” That year he engraved a silver medal, now in the Wolfville Historical Society Museum, for presentation by the Central Board of Agriculture. Soon afterwards he produced for the 1st Regiment of Halifax militia a splendidly inscribed gold medal which was awarded on 20 June 1820 as a prize for accuracy in shooting; this piece is now in the Nova Scotia Museum.
Marsters was an inventor of note, described by historian Beamish Murdoch as “of great scientific genius.” In April 1819 he announced that he had invented, for the use of steamboats and floating mills, a “Water or Propelling Wheel” that was to function completely underwater. “By this construction,” he maintained, “the largest Ship may be navigated over the roughest seas . . . [and mills] may be built in any harbour or bay where there is the smallest current without assistance of any kind of dam.” Seven years later, on 16 February, Marsters petitioned the House of Assembly for help in purchasing a transit instrument to aid in improving chronometers, and that April he was granted £98 by the legislature. In his advertisements as a watch- and clockmaker in the Halifax Journal through February 1828 he noted that he had set up “a temporary observatory” which enabled him “to rate all time-pieces with great exactness.” On 22 Aug. 1831 his announcement in the same newspaper included testimonials from the master and lieutenant of the government brig Chebucto affirming the accuracy, on voyages to Bermuda from 1825 to 1830, of a small chronometer made by Marsters. His was reportedly the first chronometer to be manufactured in North America.
Marsters had visited Great Britain in the 1820s and in 1832 he was living in New York. By 1838 he was resident in Windsor, N.S. An estrangement from his wife occurred around this time and in June 1838 he published a notice disclaiming responsibility for her debts. Nothing is known about the last seven years of his life. By his will, dated 9 Dec. 1844, he left his entire estate to his daughter Ruth; his executors were unable to locate her, however, and “could not say if she were living or dead.”

Donald C. Mackay

PANS, MG 1, 160A; 1642, nos.89—133, 187; RG 1, 443, no.8; 449, no.158; RG 36, 57, no.1503, esp. item 1. Acadian Recorder, 31 May, 16 Oct. 1817. Halifax Journal, February 1828, 22 Aug. 1831, 19 Dec. 1832. Novascotian, or Colonial Herald, 14 June 1838. Times (Halifax), 11 Feb. 1845. D. C. Mackay, Silversmiths and related craftsmen of the Atlantic provinces (Halifax, 1973). Brooks Palmer, The book of American clocks (New York, 1950). Murdoch, Hist. of N.S., 3: 548. R. C. Brooks, “Nautical instrument-makers in Atlantic Canada,” Nova Scotia Hist. Rev. (Halifax), 6 (1986), no.2: 45—48.

Text reproduced from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography - http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e ... d_nbr=3532

© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval

Trev.

[dognose]

W.H. PATERSON

78, King Street, St. John, New Brunswick


W.H. Paterson - St. John, NB - 1871

Trev.

[dognose]

E.M. MORPHY, SON & Co.

98, later, 141, Yonge Street, Toronto



E. M. Morphy, Son & Co., Manufacturers and Importers of Watches, Clocks, Jewellery, Silverware and Optical Goods, 141 Yonge Street. –A well established house, enjoying an extensive and increasing trade, and occupying a commanding position in its line of business, is that of E. M. Morphy, Son & Co. The house dates its origin as far back as 1843, the founder, Mr. E. M. Morphy, being one of the oldest York pioneers, and at present one of the most respected and public spirited citizens of the Queen City. The firm are very extensively engaged in the manufacture and importing of watches, clocks, jewellery, silverware and optical goods, and have a large trade and business connection throughout the Dominion. They also do considerable jobbing and retail, as well as repairing and engraving. Ten hands are kept in constant employment. The premises are about 22 x 100 feet in dimension, attractively and centrally located, and fitted up with much taste and elegance. Mr. Morphy was born in Ireland, but came to Canada in 1835. since which time he has by his own honest industry and ability built up his present fine business. His son, Mr. F. J. Morphy, is a Canadian by birth, and a practical and active young man. Mr. Morphy, senior, is a prominent member of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, as well as of several temperance organizations.

Source: Industries of Canada : Historical and Commercial Sketches of Toronto and Environs - 1886

The mark of Edward M. Morphy:




A bicycle was recently left for repairs at the Cleveland bicycle factory, Toronto Junction. Before it had been touched an employe of E. M. Morphy, Yonge St., jeweler, informed the people of the factory that it had been used to conceal stolen jewelry. On removing and deflating the tires jewelry valued at $20 was found ingeniously secreted inside. The articles had been stolen from Mr. Morphy's store a few days previously, and the thief, afraid either to leave his booty at home or retain it on his person, concealed it in the tires. He subsequently became conscience stricken and confessed to Mr. Morphy, telling him where the goods were to be found.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 15th November 1899

Trev.

[dognose]

LOUIS DAVIS & Co.

Montreal


Louis Davis & Company - Montreal - 1890


Louis Davis, of Louis Davis & Co., has been in New York on a purchasing trip.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 4th February 1891


Louis Davis, of Louis Davis &.Co., Montreal, P. Q., has just returned from a trip to the West.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 13th May 1891

Trev.