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Light fixtures stored in St. Catharines locker believed to be from Casa Loma
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Matthew Van Dongen
Wednesday August 20, 2008
The fierce cast-iron dragons may once have guarded Canada's most famous castle.
The winged wyrms adorn a couple of outdoor lamp stands Leon Perel believes were specially designed for Casa Loma, the early 1900s-era castle in Toronto.
They've spent the last several years in a self-storage locker in St. Catharines, however.
"That's the fun of working in the antiquing world," said Perel, the owner of Forum Galleries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. "In this business, you have to be ready for some surprises. I see interesting things come in every day. But something with a story of this magnitude? Not so often."
Perel was directed to the locker by a St. Catharines woman who said she inherited the tall iron lamps and five other light fixtures.
The woman, who Perel said wants to remain anonymous, is related to an early St. Catharines steel mill owner who supposedly snapped up the fixtures at an auction in the 1920s.
The heavy iron light fixtures have since passed from family member to family member.
Perel has been asked to auction the distinctive pieces, which include two wrought-iron "carriage house" lanterns and three brass and iron chandeliers.
Perel believes the prizes of the bunch are the gate-guarding, lizard-topped outdoor lamps, each weighing more than 40 kilograms.
Each cast-iron trunk rises more than a metre from the ground and is encircled by three dragons clamping a delicate chain in their teeth.
"The size is very impressive," Perel said. "Imagine setting those outside your front door. The proportions wouldn't work. For these, you need a gate 10 or 12 feet high."
Perel is still waiting for documents to confirm the history of the antiques, which he expects later this week.
But based on his own research and the word of his client, he believes the fixtures were auctioned off from Casa Loma in either 1924 or 1929.
Started in 1911, Casa Loma was built over three years by famed Toronto financier and industrialist Sir Henry Pellatt.
Pellatt's dream home was a medieval- looking creation on a hill overlooking the city. It took $3.5 million and 300 men to build the 98-room home, complete with turrets and secret passages.
The castle sucked money, and Pellatt was forced to abandon his home after 10 years. He auctioned off the contents in 1924.
Five years later, a failed hotel conversion resulted in another auction.
If the pieces are authentic, the administrators of Casa Loma would be interested in bringing them home, marketing director Lou Seiler said.
"We're always looking to repatriate original pieces," he said.
But he added the city-owned tourist attraction, operated by the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma, doesn't have "a massive purchasing budget."
Casa Loma deals more in donations than in bidding wars, he said.
Seiler also noted Casa Loma gets calls almost every month from people claiming to have old castle swag.
Sometimes it's real, sometimes not. "But if these are authenticated, original pieces, that would be interesting," he said.
Perel is confident the fixtures will be authenticated -- and that they'll fetch a pretty penny.
He said the dragon lamps, for example, could be worth anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 each. He figures the carriage house lanterns could be worth $5,000 each, the chandeliers $3,000 apiece.
If you have tens of thousands of dollars to burn, the auction will be held Sept. 7 at 1 p. m. All the items are viewable at www.forumgalleries.com.
Perel said he's heard from a handful of interested potential buyers, and has spoken with Casa Loma.
"It's the story that sells," he said. "That's what is most exciting."
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