{"id":293558,"date":"2025-11-19T15:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293558\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:56:14","slug":"cream-of-hudsons-bay-art-collection-to-be-auctioned-off-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293558\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cream\u2019 of Hudson\u2019s Bay art collection to be auctioned off in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art lovers, historians and those wistful about the fall of Canada\u2019s oldest company are expected in Toronto today, where the most valuable pieces in Hudson\u2019s Bay\u2019s<\/a> art collection will hit the auction block.<\/p>\n

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Heffel Fine Art Auction House will host a live sale in the tony Yorkville neighbourhood this afternoon to find new homes for 27 paintings owned by the shuttered, 355-year-old department store.<\/p>\n

The star of the auction is expected to be an oil on canvas painting of Marrakech by former British prime minister Winston Churchill. The 1935 piece depicting women standing in the shade of palm trees in Morocco has an estimated value between $400,000 and $600,000.<\/p>\n

Other highlights include a Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith painting from 1894 of pedestrians strolling rainy Yonge and King streets in Toronto and two early 19th-century, wartime pieces from William von Moll Berczy, one of the founders of the city.<\/p>\n

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Rounding out the group of paintings are more than a dozen works by artists including W.J. Phillips, George Franklin Arbuckle and Frank Johnston. Most of the paintings depict moments in the company\u2019s and Canada\u2019s history. They were commissioned for calendars HBC produced from 1913 to 1970 and distributed for free at its department stores and trading posts.<\/p>\n

Auction house head David Heffel has said the sale is a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d because retailers seldom amass such valuable collections anymore and when they do, they don\u2019t usually make it to market.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Canadian Press in October, he said he was anticipating \u201cunprecedented interest, competition and participation\u201d in the HBC sale from a live audience and thousands more he expected to be watching online.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s going to be exciting in the ballroom, but we\u2019ve also beefed up our broadcasting pipe because we anticipate we\u2019ll have a record number of viewers across Canada and around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heffel considers the items slated for the live auction to be \u201cthe cream\u201d of HBC\u2019s collection of 4,400 artifacts and thus, he said, they are likely to fetch the most money.<\/p>\n

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His company will be selling the collapsed retailer\u2019s remaining pieces in a series of online auctions stretching well into next year.<\/p>\n

The first concludes next month and includes point blankets dating as far back as 1900, portraits of former HBC governors as well as Canadian and fine art. So far, all the blankets and most of the art have garnered bids.<\/p>\n

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Excluded from the auctions is the royal charter that established HBC in 1670. HBC is expected to ask a court on Friday to let its financial adviser Reflect Advisors auction off the document later this month.<\/p>\n

The Weston and Thomson families have both agreed to start the bidding at $18 million. If they are successful, they will donate the charter to the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Royal\u00a0Ontario\u00a0Museum, which will all share the document.<\/p>\n

A look at the 27 items from Hudson\u2019s Bay hitting the auction block<\/p>\n

\u201cTracking on the Athabasca,\u201d Walter Joseph Phillips, 1934 (estimate: $15,000 to $25,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cHudson\u2019s Bay Company York Boats at Norway House,\u201d Walter Joseph Phillips, 1928 (estimate: $15,000 to $25,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cChief Trader Archibald McDonald Descending the Fraser, 1828,\u201d Adam Sherriff Scott, circa 1942 (estimate: $7,000 to $9,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Douglas Leaving Fort Langley,\u201d George Franklin Arbuckle, 1957 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cMcLoughlin Welcomes the Americans, Fort Vancouver, 1834,\u201d Charles Fraser Comfort, 1935 (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor George Simpson Welcomed by James Douglas, Fort St. James, B.C., 17th September 1828,\u201d Adam Sherriff Scott, circa 1931 (estimate: $4,000 to $6,000)<\/p>\n

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\u201cHearne Builds Cumberland House, 1774-1775,\u201d George Franklin Arbuckle, 1951 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Dog Train Leaving Lower Fort Garry, 1909,\u201d Charles Fraser Comfort, 1927 (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbassadress of Peace,\u201d George Franklin Arbuckle, circa 1952 (estimate: $8,000 to $12,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cRed River Carts Leaving Fort Garry, 1863,\u201d Adam Sherriff Scott, 1927 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cTroops at Upper Fort Garry, 1846-48,\u201d Adam Sherriff Scott, circa 1945 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscovery of the Coppermine River by Samuel Hearne,\u201d Frank Hans (Franz) Johnston, circa 1922 (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cTrading Ceremony at York Factory, 1780s,\u201d Adam Sherriff Scott, circa 1954 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Spring Fur Brigade Leaves Lachine,\u201d George Franklin Arbuckle, circa 1946 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cRadisson and des Groseilliers Trading with Indians at Rupert House, 1671,\u201d Lorne Holland Bouchard, 1968 (estimate: $4,000 to $6,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cBarnston and Ballantyne at Tadoussac, 1846,\u201d Charles Fraser Comfort, 1941 (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council of the Northern Department of Rupert\u2019s Land, Meeting at Norway House, June 21, 1836,\u201d Charles Fraser Comfort, circa 1934 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

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\u201cTrading with a Hudson\u2019s Bay Company Ship, 17th Century,\u201d George Franklin Arbuckle, 1955 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. John Rae Meets with Eskimos (Franklin Expedition),\u201d Charles Fraser Comfort, 1949 (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cSamuel Black at Finlay River,\u201d John I. Innes, 1929 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cLights of a City Street,\u201d Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, 1894, (estimate: $100,000 to $150,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cRear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson,\u201d William von Moll Berczy, 1807-1808 (estimate: $70,000 to $90,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cBattle of Trafalgar,\u201d William von Moll Berczy, 1807-1808 (estimate: $70,000 to $90,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cMarrakech,\u201d Sir Winston Churchill, circa 1935 (estimate: $400,000 to 600,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cThree Hudson\u2019s Bay Company Ships in the Thames (King George, Prince Rupert, Sea Horse),\u201d Francis Holman, 1771 (estimate: $6,000 to $8,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas at Morgan\u2019s\u201d Adrien H\u00e9bert, circa 1936 to 1937 (estimate: $40,000 to $60,000)<\/p>\n

\u201cBay Watch,\u201d Charles Pachter, 2011 (estimate: $15,000 to $25,000)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art lovers, historians and those wistful about the fall of Canada\u2019s oldest company are expected in Toronto today,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,43,38533,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-293558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-hudsons-bay","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}