Part of an ongoing look at items of local interest selling on eBay.
A stoneware flour cup manufactured by Medalta Pottery of Medicine Hat advertising Ogilvie’s Royal Household Flour and Agnew & Company of Rossland sold last week for $302 US.
Dating from the 1920s or ‘30s, it had no cracks or chips and drew seven bids, all of at least $146. However, an identical cup with several chips on the rim and a few hairline cracks on the back failed to sell on the same day for the opening price of $135 Cdn. It has since been relisted at a lower price.
Medalta items typically draw high prices, provided they are in good condition.
Another example of the same cup sold last January for $400 Cdn, while the record price was $433 US in January of last year.
The all-time high for a Medalta item from this area was a Sandon flour pitcher, which sold in 2008 for $1,136 US. A pitcher from Silverton also went for $617 in 2009, a cup from Appledale fetched $272 last March, another from Greenwood $260 last year, and a cup from Harrop $127 in 2001.
Crocks from Trail went for $150 in 2005, $202.50 in 2006, $640 in 2008, $300 in 2009, and $107.50 last year.
• A very nice 1897 stock certificate from the Boundary Creek Mining and Milling Co. of Greenwood City (as Greenwood was known before it actually became a city) sold for $111 US last week. The certificate was for 1,000 shares, issued to one W.W. Gibbs.
According to the Williams directory of BC mining companies for 1900-01, this outfit was founded in 1896 with a capital of $1.5 million. Its executive consisted of D.A. Holbrook, president; Hector McRae, managing director; and J.W. Nelson, secretary-treasurer. Other directors were C.A.E. Shaw and D.W. Holbrook. However, the signatures on the stock show the then-president as a G.A. Rendall, and the secretary as possibly G.W.H. Samson.
The company had 14 claims in the Deadwood camp, near the junction of Eholt and Boundary creeks. One of them, the Gold Bug, showed gold, silver, lead, and copper deposits.
The auction drew four bids. The seller was in Portland.
• Another bottle from the Slocan Bottling Works of Kaslo sold for $115 Cdn, despite a chip on its lip. The seller was in Procter, the buyer in Nelson.
It’s the fourth bottle produced by that company to turn up this year. The others went for $160, $179, and $866 — the latter a rare variation with three spelling mistakes.
This story will appear in the December 15 edition of the West Kootenay Advertiser.