Several years ago, a friend from the UK arrived in Nova Scotia for his first tour of the Canadian colony.  After driving through Mahone Bay and then touring our home, he presented me with a small antique engraved print of Cowes, England.  My friend had assumed that our little settlement would resemble this yachting port on the Isle of Wight (www.cowes.co.uk)…not quite.  He was thoroughly impressed with the charm of Lunenburg and Chester, where we dined at the venerable Captain’s House.  He’ll be back in a few weeks and will undoubtedly be impressed with the rejuvenations of our townscapes.  He will also see the romantic influence of that little antique print in my home on Mahone Bay. 

My first introduction to these little pieces of history was during a university sojourn to London when we spent a day on Portobello road.  For $10 I purchased a framed hand-coloured print of a lion.  An interest in felines later led me to the Moulin Rouge.  Wandering the side streets of Paris, I acquired a print of a black cat’s eye peering through the foliage.  That was 1983.  Now, twenty years later that cat’s eye glances at me while I write these columns, reminding me as a postcard of my travels, where I’ve been and whom I’ve encountered.  The little engraving of Cowes now resides in the guest room, reminding me and welcoming him and his wife back to our foggy little bay.  Since his last visit, a few more prints have taken their place in my home. 

After closing my bookshop in Mahone Bay, I rented the building to Dr. Iain Taylor, an adjunct professor of geography at Dalhousie, who merchandises a keen interest in antique maps and prints.  He educated me on his extensive collection at home while entertaining interest in a few Bartlett prints of the Cathedral in Montreal.  Those aged and stained prints now counterpoint a modern and “paint-stained” interpretation of Notre Dame in Paris, romanticizing the presentation over a Philippe Starke “Costes” chair.  I placed another of Dr. Taylor’s prints, this time Alexandria, Egypt on the mantel in deference to grand libraries lost, while filling the rest of my home with favoured books of knowledge. 

To create your own print allusions, there is a fine source in our midst—Dr. David Janigan of Chester.  He has a fine collection of Canadian history and florals for your perusal.  If you’re feeling the collector’s bug, for a nominal fee, say $24,000, you can acquire a group of engravings of Halifax dated 1777 from www.donaldhead.com.  For information on the colouring process or the cleaning and care of old prints, see www.antiqueprints.com.  Bartlett’s Canadiana is available at another Chester site—www.oldprints.co.uk—across the pond.  I even found an entire book of Quebec Bartlett prints at the J. W. Doull bookstore in Halifax (www.doullbooks.com).  It seemed a steal at $100, but I’m not in favour of destroying a book to frame a print, but it would be a nice addition to my shelves.