Q & A

M.B. of Ottawa, Ontario writes:

I am writing to you regarding an item that I inherited from my grandfather a few years ago. The item is a hand made carriage that my grandfather built in around 1932-1934. From what I do know about it, General Motors had a contest to build a scale model of the "Fisher Coach", which I believe was the GM trademark at the time. I do not know if this was a local contest, as my grandad lived in St. Catharines, On, or if it was a country wide contest. The winner of the contest won a full scholarship from GM. I was told that he finished second and didn't get the scholarship, but did have a long career at GM. The carriage is approximately 20"L x 12" H x 10" W and has very intricate carvings, stitching, and gold braiding. The doors open, the windows go down and the wheels and steering are fully functional. I recently saw a commercial for your show on the tv and was quite surprised to see, just briefly, a carriage almost exactly like the one I have. I would really appreciate any other information you may have about this item. Thank You very much for your time.

We asked Darrell Butler to respond:

Many thanks for submitting this piece. It is very interesting. The carriage model that we saw in Saskatoon provided some information. Apparently GM ran a competition each year for a time in the 1930s for potential engineering students where they could win a scholarship to attend university by making a model of the Fisher company symbol which was a carriage. The one that I saw in Saskatoon had all hand made parts which was made by the student who entered the competition. He had filled out a card that accompanied the model when it was sent in, which indicated that there were two ways of submitting a model - making all the parts by hand and by assembling commercially available pieces. That student had filled out that all parts were hand made.

If this carriage had all hand made parts, I would think it should be insured for about $10,000. I feel that they should be worth about the same as a ship's model.

This model is very similar to the one in Saskatoon, because the contest required that they all be made in the same dimensions and with similar decoration. The Fisher symbol resembles an 18th century coach, probably a Royal coach if you consider all the decorative detail. The heaviness of the wheels, style of the coach body and decoration all point to an 18th century coach.

I would urge the owner to keep the piece in his family as it was made by his grandfather. It should not be played with but, if the owner wanted to use as a decoration, it should be kept in a display case made of plexi-glass with filters applied to reduce the fading effects of sunlight, and placed in a corner where the sunlight does not fall directly on the coach. Sunlight will damage the textiles and paint of the model. (Most stores selling plexi-glass have plexi-glass with filters.)
If the owner wanted to dispose of this model outside of his family I would strongly urge him to consider the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa or the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau.

It is wonderful to see such a wonderful piece come in through e-mail. It makes opening e-mail exciting.