More souvenir decals from the web. Two of these sold on ebay recently, although we have already seen one here before. The Vancouver Mountie decal is currently listed on ebay, and it looks like it’s signed. The name in the bottom right hand corner spells Tekao. Still, my all-time favourite decal is this one of Chinatown.

Souvenir of Vancouver, BC; another pennant you may enjoy. I’m sure there’s lots more out there. Featured here: the RCMP at the Courthouse (now Art Gallery), Burrard Inlet, Indian Totem Poles at Stanley Park, and Lions Gate Bridge, again with a mistaken apostrophe. Perhaps this pennant is from the same era as the infamous silk pillowcase!

An ink on paper drawing submitted by Louise Phillips dating back to November 30th, 2005. Louise writes:

I thought of this drawing today, a few years after it was made, but the map of Vancouver and my impression of Richmond remain true to the time of its making.

The drawing is in ink on the cover of an environmentally friendly notebook found on sale in a Steveston shop. I was newly arrived from Toronto and experiencing a strange kind of culture shock. Drawing and writing were a guarantee of sanity.

Perhaps it is timely in this year, 2012 - the Queen’s Jubilee Year, to look back at the past!

Thanks Louise!

A Souvenir Pillowcase of Vancouver, on glorious printed silk. I’ve covered the souvenir plate meme previously, and this vintage pillowcase is definitely inspired by the tourist art aesthetic. We may never learn who the artists involved were, but looking at the closeup images, the artwork really begins to resemble scenes from a comic book, and I can totally imagine Tintin suddenly blazing onto the scene! I’m having a hard time dating this piece, but I have a hunch or two. For more, plus a DIY contest challenge, check out the cross-post on VancouverIsAwesome.com

Siwash Rock, a colour aquatint by Nicholas Hornyanksy. As indicated by an attached slip of paper, this print appears to have been a gift from Globe Envelopes Limited, for Christmas of 1946. From the web:

Nicholas Hornyansky was born in Budapest and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest. He emigrated to Canada in 1929, settling in Toronto. He became a popular and award-winning Canadian artist and printmaker, exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists, the California Printmakers, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers, and numerous other venues. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy and taught printmaking at the Ontario College of Art. His work is in major public collections including the National Gallery of Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Thanks, craigslister!

As Acurate and Unfailing as the 9 O’clock Gun - Electric Time, a BC Electric advert from the Vancouver Sun, on page 2 of Sep 8, 1931. This one doesn’t feature much artistry, but it maximizes the local lore of the 9 o’clock gun. Plus BC Electric ads are classic, and we should see them more often.

Actually, the copy of this ad is so lofty, it deserves transcription. It’s also hard to read the right hand side, due to early printing inconsistencies.

As Accurate and Unfailing as the 9 o’clock Gun—Electric Time

Great astronomical observatories with their wonderfully precise instruments scrupulously recording exact time by rigid and careful observation of the heavens.

It is this fundamental exactness which has made possible the amazing accuracy of the 9 o’clock gun—the same exactness controls the electric clock.

NO SPRINGS OR WEIGHTS

Discarding springs, weights, and all former methods of time recording, the electric clock assures a flawless accuracy that corresponds exactly with computations of official observatories.

THE MASTER CLOCK

The Master Clock is controlled by radio waves from these official observatories. It in turn controls huge generators which transmit electric pulsations through your light circuit. In this way, your electric clock is kept absolutely accurate.

NO ATTENTION NEEDED

No winding, no regulating, simply connect to your electric light circuit.

COUNTLESS MODELS

Electric time is sweeping the country—models for every room in the house have been designed in rich, tasteful styles. Call and see the wonderful selection in our showrooms— models priced from $10 up to the lovely china Grandfather Clocks at $250. If you cannot visit the showrooms, mail coupon or phone for further particulars about electric clocks.

[no phone number included]

COUPON

Please send me further information about electric clocks:

Name

Address

BC Electric
APPLIANCE STORES
BRITISH COLUMBIA ELECTRIC RAILWAY CO.

Stanley Park Junction, a painting by Brian Croft, 2011. Happy Christmas, everyone! Brian writes on his website:

The beginnings of this little railway can be traced as far back to 1904 when Park Board meeting minutes record a note stating “Application to establish miniature pleasure railway in Stanley Park turned down”. As chance would have it, in the 1940’s, Provincial Chief Engineer, John Armstrong built a miniature steam engine and train in his basement in Victoria. Cutting a hole in the wall of his house to get it out and onto 7 1/2 inch gauge tracks all around the neighborhood, the railway soon became too big an attraction for his community and as events unfolded, it was announced by the Vancouver Parks Board in April of 1947 that a location in Stanley Park was to become the new home for Armstrong’s railway….

Read the complete post on Brian’s site.

Stanley Park, a map produced by Labatt Breweries of British Columbia Ltd, artist unknown. The brochure talks about the devastating effect Typhoon Frieda had on the park in the fall of 1962; more than 13,000 hemlocks were destroyed, knocking over mature trees onto younger generation of trees planted by foresters in the 1930s. In the spring of 1963, more than 22,000 Douglas fir were planted to repair the damage.

US President Harding in Stanley Park, a painting by John Innes. The subject matter is rather foreboding, as the President would fall ill and die a week after visiting Vancouver in July of 1923. Quoting John Mackie’s Vancouver Sun story from 2009,

Harding and some members of the presidential party got food poisoning from eating Alaskan crab on July 24. He managed to make it through his public events for a couple of days, but by July 30 the Vancouver World was reporting the “President’s position is acute.” Harding contracted pneumonia, and died of a heart attack Aug. 2 in San Francisco, a week after his Vancouver visit.

This came as quite a shock to the city, and as such, they tried to make amends by commissioning some fine art. 

[The Vancouver Sun’s] Publisher Robert Cromie paid “the Remington of the Canadian West,” John Innes, the princely sum of $1,000 to come up with an epic vision of Harding beguiling the masses in Stanley Park. It’s a fairly romantic scene - Harding extends his arms “in fraternal greeting” to the crowd, surrounded by a lush green forest, the North Shore mountains poking through in the background.

The painting was presented to the National Press Club in Washington on May 9, 1924, and was accepted on behalf of the United States by Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge.

Where is the painting today? Well, John Mackie did an excellent job tracking down the painting:

Trying to locate a relatively obscure painting in the Smithsonian collection is a daunting task, because the Smithsonian has a mind-boggling 137 million artifacts. But after many, many phone calls and emails, Bethany Bentley of the National Portrait Gallery found a listing for the Innes painting in the National Museum of American History.

That museum’s Melinda Machado says the Innis painting was last exhibited in Seattle in 1980, and is currently in storage.

We may not get a chance to see this painting again, but walking through the Quadrangle at SFU recently, I spotted a whole series of large scale historic canvases by John Innes. Check them out in the university’s hall of art!

Nine O’Clock Gun, cover art from the Vancouver novel by Roland Wild, 1952. From the dustjacket:

The reproduction of an Indian Totem Pole in Stanley Park, Vancouver, on the front of this jacket is from a colour photograph by R. SAIDMAN, F.I.B.P., A.R.P.S., of “Illustrated.”

Vancouver, an illustrated poster by W Ellis, circa 1969. The credits at the bottom of the poster indicate it’s from Studio 001, Vancouver, BC, with distributors PHD. Does anyone know which Ellis this might be, way back in 1969? Maybe a Bill or William? Thanks for the submission, Jeff!

Easter Be-in, a comic map of Stanley Park, unsigned, but based on the typographic style, presumably Rand Holmes. Published in the early days of the Georgia Straight, March 30th, 1972. Some historical context provided via an article by Dave Watson from the Georgia Straight, May 8, 1997:

From 1967 through to the mid-1970s, the Easter Be-in was one of the most visible expressions of Vancouver’s counterculture. At its peak, thousands of the young, the hip, and the merely curious would assemble in Stanley Park to listen to bands, speakers, and poets, socialize, become inebriated, and occasionally throw up. The Be-in arrived each year with spring, a time when it is either very foolish or merely optimistic to schedule a regular outdoor event in Vancouver, a time when the monotony of rain and cold is often interrupted only by long periods of cold rain.

The Be-ins were more than just free concerts. They served as an opportunity to gather as a community, a means of keeping in touch, an annual general meeting for people who felt they were onto something that mainstream society wouldn’t give them credit for. The rest of the year, you might be a freak, some weirdo with long hair, the subject of derisive jokes, but at least at the Be-in you knew you weren’t alone. At the beginning, there was no industry to design, package, and market some form of channeled rebellion for you and your peers. That came later…

The Chuck Davis’ Guide to Vancouver, a book from 1973 designed by celebrated typographer Jim Rimmer, illustrated by John Robertson, and published by J.J. Douglas Ltd, West Vancouver. Chuck Davis of course went on to publish many more books about the city, including one last immense book due to appear on November 15, 2011 appropriately titled the History of Metropolitan Vancouver. I had the pleasure of working with Chuck Davis on the Vancouver Historical Society production of City Reflections a few years ago. Much of my great respect for the city comes from him! And if you haven’t already perused his immense online resource VancouverHistory.ca, go there now!

A lost mural of Vancouver, this view of Stanley Park was painted on the side of the Chapel at Stanley Park, at the end of Chilco Street between Alberni and W Georgia. From Luis Curran’s photograph on pbase believed to be taken November 6, 2005:

This mural was originally commissioned by the architect to answer the complaints of those who thought views of Stanley Park would be destroyed by his building on the corner. A new building has since been built right next to it so, inevitably, the mural is now lost!

I’m not certain who the artist was, or even who the architect was for that matter, but surely someone will know! The second image of the site before construction is from the RE/MAX Crest Realty (Westside) site of real estate agents Les Twarog and Sonja Pederson, possibly circa 2001? Any additional info? Comments welcome!

Cross-posted with additional text to VancouverIsAwesome.com

Update! Thanks to a comment at VIAwesome, the artist has been identified as Dana Irving! The work is titled Stanley Lodge and she did the painting in 1995. Thanks for the comment, Mike!

The Old Empress of Japan Figurehead, Stanley Park, 1939, a linocut by E.J. Hughes, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Another work from the exhibition An Autobiography of Our Collection, one of the 80 Artworks at 80, selected on September 28, 2011 by Zoe Grams. Zoe writes:

Vancouver, for me, has always meant Stanley Park. Not the Stanley Park of summer, when the seawall tingles with brightly-dressed tourists and families, but the Stanley Park of Autumn, when the air is sharp and the trees start to bare. E.J. Hughes’ linocut conjures both a peace and nostalgia that I have always received during my frequent visits to the park since moving to Canada. There’s the curvy, friendly-looking benches in the forefront, and the muted, soft greens and beiges felt on a cold day. And then the bright, stunning punch of the Figurehead as you round the corner, just like when you spot something special on the sea’s horizon, or come upon a statue you forgot was there.

A BC-resident, E.J. Hughes’ work is saturated with symbols of the West Coast and Canadian culture. There is a great feeling of pride and beauty; his linocut feels like a celebration of the province’s atmosphere, its quiet strength. It is also a very accurate depiction of my favourite days in a city that I only recently started to call home.

(Source: )