Green Spot Antiques, GALT (Cambridge), Ontario, Canada

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4 Responses to “ Ask us anything, we’ll answer- get to know us ”

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   admin on June 1, 2010 at 04:43

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   	scott	Submitted on 2010/05/31 at 8:50pm i have a big trunk that says gibraltarized 1922 as well as “you cant beat” “eatonia” for reliability and value.  it also has a langmuir luggage marking and a eagle lock co. lock on it.  can you tell me anything about this trunk? thanks

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     bill langmuir on June 2, 2010 at 16:55

     . The trunk you have was built by The M Langmuir Mfg Co on King street West in Toronto. The company was the largest trunk and bag maker in Canada for many years. They operated from 1890 to 1960, and were in fact preceeded by H E Clarke & Co (1855-1890) Matthew Langmuir became Clarke’s partner in 1870 and bought rest of the firm in 1890 for his own company. The factory grew to 200,000 sq ft with about 400 employees. Eatonia was the “house” brand for Eatons for whom Langmuir made trunks for most of their time in business. Gibralterized refers to the patented corner contruction process in the trunk – this was a Hartmann Trunk Co patent – Langmuir was the licenced Canadian manufacturer for Hartmann from c.1910 to 1955. Hartmann remains in business today.

     Bill Langmuir
     langmuir@bconnex.net

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       vincej on June 6, 2010 at 18:29

       I wish to thank Mr bill langmuir directly for this great piece of information. 

       Its always very nice to find we’re dealing in old parts of canadian history in our shop. 

       That does sound like a very illustrious and long-lived establishment and we’re happy to have had some of it’s products pass our hands and be able to pass it further down the chain of life.  

       It’s our mission of course, and our livliehood, but especially nice to know that the knowledge of the past gets carried forwards a bit more each day. 

       Thanks to the the thoughtful comments and delightful information of people such as yourselves.   

       I hope more people  us for info…  love to learn these things myself  

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         bill langmuir on June 8, 2010 at 19:53

         . Vince
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         Thanks for your response. I actually did a history of the company a few years ago – in booklet form. They produced an enormous volume of product over the years – and I believe did it well, and it seemed a legacy worth preserving.

         My dad was the last principal of the firm – 3rd generation, but he always said  there was never much money in the hand luggage, always made there dough (large thru the ’50′s) on trunks and small leather goods (binocular, camera cases etc.) the  company also owned Julian Sale Leather Goods which was their retail outlet and kind of the “Birks” of the fancy leather  goods business. Each item came in a gold stamped box…
          
         I was only 3 years old when the firm was wound up but was always intrigued and gathered all the bits of info I had to create a history of the company. Once the doors close it amazing how quickly the knowledge vanishes. This was a firm that employed 000′s of people for over 100 years – once its gone its as though it never existed.

         If you ever get some of the product in your shop I’d be happy to help date and provide any info I can. May see you at Kempenfest. I’m in Collingwood but grew up around Barrie and my wife likes to get to Kempenfest if she can.

         My best wishes for the continued success of Green Spot Antiques
         Bill Langmuir

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