Old Crow Antiques & Framing
Athabasca’s Famous Little Store
The Old Anglican Rectory,
4812-49 St., Athabasca, AB, T9S 1C4, Canada
Telephone: 1 780 675-4400
Books: The Long Way to Los Gatos
Take
the Tour (link)
Contact Us
Who we are
We are Trish and Charles Bazalgette.
Trish does the framing and runs the business.
She has taken a professional framing course.
She also has master’s degrees from the
University of Alberta in History, and in Library and Information Science, and
often wonders why she is running a quirky little store in a small town, but
that is what she decided she wanted to do.
Charles has worked in the IT industry for 40
years, but is hoping to retire from it soon.
Any of his spare time is spent working on the house, but he plans to
devote more time to restoring antiques as soon as possible. He wants to build up the antiques side of
the business again. He tries to help
with the business but mainly succeeds in getting in the way.
Custom Picture Framing
Framing is the main part of our business at present, and we provide top quality advice, materials and workmanship. All materials we use are acid-free, and our glass resists the effects of UV light, which would otherwise fade your pictures. Our prices are very competitive, and we have a large choice of materials. We are honoured to have been asked by Athabasca University to frame their large art collection, and this is an ongoing task. We also assist local artists to present their work as attractively as possible, and there is no doubt that this helps to sell their pictures. We do not sell standard-size frames, e.g., 5x7, 6x8, 10x12 etc., off the shelf, because these are readily available at drugstores, but we will make frames of any shape or size, and of course the quality is much higher than the bulk-store variety. We always have frames of odd sizes for sale, which result from cancelled orders, mis-sizing and the using-up of surplus mouldings, and these are very reasonably priced. Canny local artists often buy these and then paint a picture to fit them. We provide additional services such as stretching canvases and cross-stitches, but do not now make shadow-boxes, which are so labour-intensive that we cannot charge a realistic price for them. Ready-made shadow-boxes for hockey sweaters etc can be found at outlets like Costco, at a much lower price than we could make them. As well as conventional framing, we also undertake drymounting and plaque-mounting.
Antiques and Restoration
Past customers will remember that we started as an antiques business before we began to frame pictures, but we retain our business name because we plan to ramp up the antiques side again. We have managed to clear the centre bay of our Carriage House, and we have some antiques on display there. These are mainly items that we have had in storage for a while, and they are mostly as found. Please ask in the store if you would like to view anything. The Carriage House needs a great deal of structural work, but it has quite a lot of workshop and warehouse space, which we will ultimately be able to expand into. We are not in a position to restore antiques at the moment. We are always interested in buying antiques, but bear in mind that we use the old-world definition of an antique – namely, a decorative and functional article, craftsman-made, which is at least 100 years old. In common with other dealers, we will not pay for an item more then half of the price which we expect to get for it. This means we may ticket it even higher. This does not include the cost of restoration, if that is needed, which will of course further reduce the price we can pay.
Books
We both love collecting books, and have
experience in the business. We have
been selling them in aid of our cat shelter for some years and these books are
mainly donated.
However, we also have a selection of new books,
mainly of local and provincial interest, and an expanding stock of second-hand
books, mainly non-fiction. Charles also
sells books online, via Biblio. You can
search our online catalogue here, but it is mostly
obscure non-fiction. Still, if you
happen to find a title you want, you can collect it at the store and save on
postage. We are always happy to accept
saleable books in very good condition, either as donations for the shelter, or
as job lots for sale. We will find any
book you want, if it is available anywhere for sale. Try us!
This is a partial list of new books that we have in stock at the moment:
(It is still advisable to call us if you are travelling any distance, so that we can reserve a copy for you)
Books by local authors or which
have local content
The Tin Box, by Holly Kennedy
(signed first edition hard cover)
The Penny Tree, by Holly Kennedy
(signed paperback)
The Silver Compass, by Holly
Kennedy (signed paperback)
The Athabasca Ryga, writings by
George Ryga, edited (and signed) by David Gregory
The Prairie Novels, by George
Ryga
The Other Plays, by George Ryga
Basky, by Dorothy Lane
Pete the Puddleduck, by Dorothy
Lane
The Emperor’s New Climate
(signed), by Bruno Wiskel
Athabasca Haiku, by Christine
Nelson and Merilyn Peruniak
Backdoor to the Yukon, by Otto
Lahser
Athabasca Seasons: A Memoir, by
Audrey Weldon Reid
Bright Baubles, Tarnished
Trinkets, by Audrey Weldon Reid
We sometimes have second-hand
copies of Athabasca Landing, an Illustrated History
Alberta authors or Alberta
content
The Way It Was: Vignettes from
One-Room Schools, by Edith Van Kleek
The Long Trail: Story of a
Pioneer Family, by Beulah Baldwin
I Am Albertan: a Photographic
Essay, by Tim Van Horn and Kristen Wagner
Back Roads, by Ted Ferguson
With Unshakeable Persistence:
Rural Teachers in the Depression Years, by Elizabeth McLachlan
With Unfailing Dedication: Rural
Teachers in the War Years, by Elizabeth McLachlan
We also have a selection of
Alberta and Western Canadian fiction.
We are always looking for books
about Athabasca or by Athabasca authors.
The same applies to Central and
Northern Alberta.
Los Gatos
We have the last case anywhere of new, signed, copies of The Long Way To Los Gatos, by Verne R. Albright. Verne is probably the leading authority on Peruvian Pasos in North America, and now lives in Calgary. He is also married to one of Trish’s sisters.
See this link for more details: http://www.peruvian-pasos.com/valbright_lwlg.html
Pottery
Locally-made pottery is one of our best lines,
and is very popular as a quality gift.
We are proud to offer the beautiful stoneware
made by Linda Buhlmann. We have some
stunning majolica-style pieces made by the late Lillie Els, and character faces
in Athabasca red clay by Sharon Kump.
We had to go as far as Fort McMurray to find the best colour-glazed
pottery and porcelain. This is made by
Barb Howe of Clay Necessities, and is of unsurpassed quality, with fantastic
glaze colours. We always have some
pieces in genuine red Athabasca clay, made for us by Deb Lucas. We are always looking for quality pottery
made locally.
Art and Prints
We have always displayed work by local artists, but at present we have very limited wallspace. Places to see local art include the Riverhouse Eatery on East Hill, and the Red Roof Gallery. We have a variety of limited edition prints by Alberta artists, including a few examples by the late Georgia Jarvis, which are becoming very scarce on the primary market. We always have a choice selection of antique engravings and etchings for sale, the earliest being from the 1730’s.
Cards
Our exclusive range of Athabasca Archives artcards, showing views of old Athabasca Landing, should now be well-known. We had them printed by permission of the Archive, which receives a portion of the proceeds of each sale. We have a choice of locally-made cards, including those made from watercolours by Joan Sherman.
Knitwear
We sell gorgeous handmade sweaters, gloves,
bags etc in wool and alpaca, imported by a local company on a fair trade
basis. Their full range can be seen on
their wholesale site at http://www.buffaloimport.ca/
We do not stock all of their lines, but if you see
something you would like please call us and we will get it for you if it is
available.
Rocky Mountain Soap
We are delighted have been chosen to be the
only local supplier of the popular range of soaps and beauty products made by The
Rocky Mountain Soap Company.
See http://www.rockymountainsoap.com/
Briwax
We have been selling Briwax, ‘The British Antique Restorer’s Friend’ for some years, because we use it ourselves. It comes in a variety of colours and is great as a finish restorer or on new wood. Next time you decide to slosh on some lemon oil, which will do your furniture no good at all, think of Briwax!
Foods
Our food items consist of either local products, like honey and wild rice, or imported products from the United Kingdom, which are not available here, but which we ourselves cannot do without. These include the best tea we have ever tasted – Yorkshire Gold, Cadbury’s genuine Drinking Chocolate and other sinful things like Fry’s Peppermint Creams and Galaxy bars. We now stock also a gourmet Guatemalan coffee selected by our kinsman, coffee expert David Twentyman.
Gifts
We do not sell gifts. In other words, we do not buy or sell the generic items which gift or drug stores sell. However, you will find plenty of things which would make a unique gift, and which could only be bought in our store.
Local Products
We strive to sell as many local products as we can, and are always looking for suitable items. Potential customers are always asking: “Is it local?” – this means they are looking for something unique and different. This is what differentiates us from other stores in Athabasca. Our policy is: if we stock a product, it means in almost all cases that we are the only retailer in Athabasca who sells it. If you are thinking of offering something to us to sell, consider whether it fits in with our existing merchandise, and with that policy. We are picky, but we are always open to ideas. We usually do not handle ‘craft’ items, but there are exceptions.
Consignment
When we opened we used to take a lot of merchandise on consignment, but this is rare now. This is because we did not charge a high percentage, and issues with inventory control, maintainance of supplies and the bookkeeping work involved made it uneconomic. We are always prepared to consider it for a trial period in special cases though.
Our Terms
We normally take
about two weeks to fulfill a frame order, and to have it ready on a
Friday. If the promised date cannot be
met for any reason we will always let you know if we can. Since we are a small business we do ask you
to pick up and pay for your orders promptly.
After all, we have already bought the materials and done the work. If you are a corporate customer we will ask
you to pay on collection, since we are not resourced to offer a ’90-day
purchase order’ approach. Orders not
collected after a month will incur storage charges of $2 per week or part of a
week. If you ask for a written quote,
we will charge a fee of $25, which is deductible from your order. Rush orders, if agreed to, may also incur a
$25 surcharge at our discretion.
Our House
We are very proud to be the owners of the Old
Anglican Rectory and we think it is a lovely house. We have had our eye on it for years, so were very please to be
able to buy it finally in August 2006.
The Bishop of Athabasca originally owned all of the lots from the corner
of 49th Avenue up to and including the Falconer house lot. Our two-and-a-half lots is what remains of
that property, which explains the presence of the Carriage House, an extremely
rare building to find in a small Alberta town. So many people we have talked to
said they also wanted to buy it, but most say ominously: “It’s a nice big lot.”
This made us even more determined to save the
house, as it was too tempting for a buyer to demolish it and put up a condo
complex. It is our conviction to see that this never happens. The buildings were erected during the period
1910-1912, and the Rectory was originally used, from what we can gather, as a
hostel for travelling missionaries and others.
It only became the Rectory in the 1920’s and was sold when it was
regarded as unsuitable in the 1950’s to Aubrey and Edna Lewis. We bought the property from the Lewis family
after their parents had passed on.
We are having a lot of fun restoring this
house. We have recorded the work in many photographs and it will have its own
website some day. Briefly, the work so
far has included the installation of a new heating system and new wiring and
plumbing.
We have re-roofed the leaky extension at the
back and added a small porch to it. The
existing front and back living rooms have been returned to their existing
wall-covering (burlap), and very nearly their original colours, and the fir
trim, which was almost all missing, has been replaced. This part of the house was done first, so
that we could open the store, and we added a new door at the north side of the
house for access to it. We have built a
deck along the side, to satisfy the requirements of wheelchair access. The house originally had a full verandah
along the front, of which only the small porch remains. We shall be replacing this.
Payment
We accept cash, cheques, debit, VISA and Mastercard
Business Hours
Our opening hours are:
Monday – Closed
Tuesday-Friday – 11 to 5
Saturday – 11 to 3
Contact us
Address:
Old Crow Antiques and Framing
4812-49 Street
Athabasca, Alberta
Canada
T9S 1C4
Phone:
780-675-4400
Email:
(Remove the ‘x’ before sending – we put it on
there to stop the spammers)
Directions:
If coming from Highway 55, turn up 49th
(Skinner) Street and cross 49th Avenue. We are on the left, after Venture Place and before Lifestyle
Fitness. You can’t really miss our lot
– it has massive old spruce trees on it.
Our
pet projects, of course:
The Tizzie Bazalcat Shelter for
Homeless Cats
Our
cat shelter still has 45 cats waiting for good homes
The Jean Louis Bazalgette
Story
Ongoing
e-biography of Charles’ great-great-great-great grandfather
© Charles
Bazalgette 2008