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Articles |
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On Meeting
George Chopping
by Sean Murphy |
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When
my son Alec and I decided to travel west by car this summer, one of the
places I desired to stop at was Whitewood Saskatchewan to visit George
Chopping and his museum. The name of George Chopping (pronounced the same
as chopping wood) was known to myself from my earlier days of collecting
Fruit Jars, from references in the Unitts book “Bottle Collecting in
Canada” and his recent ad in the last edition of Canadian Bottle and
stoneware collector magazine.
Whitewood Saskatchewan is some 70 Kilometers west from the Manitoba border
on Highway #1, the Trans-Canada highway, and some 2550 kilometers from
Toronto as the car drives. Old Georges Museum is on the North side of
the highway which crosses Whitewood’s northern limit. As you pass the
usual Prairie gaggle of service stations and highway stops Georges is just
before you leave town heading west. You can’t miss his large newly
re-painted sign.
We
arrived late in the afternoon of our third day of traveling west, rang the
front door bell and found George’s note on the side door directing us to
the local truck stop where we found him having coffee. After
introductions, a coffee and a general chat on the state of the bottle
collecting field, George invited us back for a tour of his collection.
George’s museum is housed in a large
rambling late nineteen century yellow brick house. The house is filled to
the brim with antiques of all description collected over a lifetime from
all corners of the prairies. The real heart of the collection for a bottle
& stoneware collector resides in the basement where George keeps his
extensive western bottle and crock collection. I really had no idea
of the scope, variety & scale of western collectibles in these categories.
We viewed Manitoba Hutchinson sodas with mug bases, Baltimore loop seal
closure and even a crown top adaptation to a hutch moulded bottle.
We saw no fewer than nine variants of
Hudson Bay Company Medicinal bottles, three sizes of skull poison ( real moulded skulls, not just embossed) in cobalt blue, a
wide variety of prairie ginger beers and soda siphons, and small town
medicines. The stoneware in the west tends to be later in date than most
of the earlier salt glaze items we are used to seeing on Ontario, but this
doesn’t distract from the fascination of seeing Jugs from small prairie
towns that time has forgotten or that don’t even exist anymore (and George
has lots of them). |
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A mound of buffalo bones |
We then entered the area that houses
the pieces George dug from the Beausejour glassworks site in
Manitoba in the late 1970’s. This was a real learning experience for me as
this glass house spans, in its brief history, the era when hand blowing
gave way to the machine made glass. George has examples of pieces from
both periods and a variety of colours, including a distinct shade of bluey-green-yellow
(hard to describe) glass that is solely a Beausejour colour. The one of a
kind “success” brand fruit jars (wheat sheaf emblem) in quart and pint
were assembled by George from pieces dug in the site and have this
distinct colour. These jars were a rare treat, as they are a real piece of
fruit jar mythology and history. George’s take on these jars is that they
never made it into production because of the small narrow threads would
not snug up a standard fruit jar ring, which were quite crude at this
period and therefore a good seal could not be achieved. The later “Acme
Seal” jars produced by machine at this site have more pronounced threads.
Behind the Victorian house George is
assembling a wild west style town from salvaged buildings and
architectural pieces, and is a work in progress. George led us into a
small low building made from found material (mainly small trees, it
is the prairies after all) which he had hauled in from 12 miles north of
whitewood.. To enter this tiny cabin we had to stoop as the ceilings were
about five feet high (we’re both about six feet). This was a real prairie
settlers cabin appointed with period furniture and wood stove. Sitting in
this cabin around the old table with George was for any student of history
a step back in time You could almost feel and see the people of the time
and the hardship of living through a prairie winter in such confined a
space. Absolutely marvelous.
I was lucky enough on our travels to secure a copy of Georges book
“Bottles of the Canadian prairies, (403 pages, hardbound) published in
1978. Only a thousand of these were ever printed and I hate to admit
I was unaware of its existence until our visit. The book is chocked full
of great photos of Prairie bottles and crocks and would be a must for any
complete library on Canada bottles.
Well our time with George was at an end.
(we stopped briefly for a couple of pictures on the return trip) and I
rated it as one of the highlights of our western road trip. George is as
friendly and engaging an individual as you’ll meet anywhere and he
extended his best Prairie hospitality. The items on display are numerous
and offer a slice of Prairie history not to be missed. If you are
traveling west across the long flat Prairie this is a must stop for any
collector. |
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Copy of George Chopping's 1978 book |
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To contact Sean
Murphy click on the image above |
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