Nick and the Fort Garry Hudson's Bay Co. Tin

Fort Garry Hudson's Bay Co. Tin

Recently I met Nick when he emailed me about a man named Henry Taylor. Henry was a British soldier who was hidden from the German army in Italy by Nick's grandparents.

Nick wanted to find Henry's family so that his aunt could reunite with them. During our many email and Skype conversations Nick found out that I collect, among other things, antique tins.

 Much to my surprise and delight Nick sent a gift - a tin he found in the bush up north many years ago. Nick told me he was working near the Albany River when he found this tin pictured on the left.

The Albay River flows northeast from Lake St. Joseph in Northwestern Ontario and empties into James Bay. So it's pretty far north.

Tin cleaned and displayed with  my smaller tin collection

The tin may look in rough shape to a non-collector but it's actually a very nice tin made circa 1910.  It's not easy to find tins with Hudson's Bay Company wording. So for me it's a gem!

And having been sent it as a kind gesture from a new friend makes the tin even more special in my eyes. I think it's so great that Nick kept the tin all these years in hopes that one day he'd meet someone who would cherish it and give it a home.

Once the tin arrived from Nick's home in British Columbia, my husband cleaned it up a bit to get rid of some of the rust. You have to be careful doing that as you don't want to damage the surface or the graphics.

Some of you will be wondering what kind of tins a person can collect. Well I collect themes as well as miscellaneous tins that appeal to me for their graphics or colours. I enjoy thinking about the people who might have owned them.

One of my collections is antique coffee tins. Here is one of my favourites on the left. I also collect antique medicine tins and vintage marshmallow tins.

 Someone once asked me how many tins I have displayed in our home.

Well I just counted and I have 29 coffee tins displayed in the kitchen, 21 medicine tins in the bathrooms, 7 marshmallow tins in the family room, 5 WW1 tins, 5 starch tins and 5 tea tins also in the family room.

Really, not many, less than 75. Nick's tin is a very welcome addition - thank you Nick! Not just another great tin to add to my collection but a new friend. And as an added bonus Nick's wife sent a jar of her homemade Saskatoon Jelly - yummy! How lucky can one person get!