Hat, mittens and mukluks from a sample 2010 Olympic flag bearer uniform.HO/The Canadian Press
Fans of Canada’s Olympic team are on the cusp of their own competition.
Heffel Fine Art Auction House revealed Tuesday that its latest sale of Hudson’s Bay treasures includes Canadian Olympic memorabilia.
Up for grabs in the online auction that got underway are various Team Canada podium jackets signed by Olympians and medallists.
Also on offer are flag and torch bearer uniforms from the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, a jacket made for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and several Team Canada coats and outfits from the last 20 years.
A signed Hudson's Bay Co. Team Canada opening ceremony parka from the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games.HO/The Canadian Press
HBC designed many of the pieces during its 16-year run as Team Canada’s official outfitter, though the Commonwealth Games jacket was made by Zellers, a department store HBC bought in 1978. Zellers is now owned by the retailing Benitah family.
HBC, Canada’s oldest company which filed for creditor protection last year, has been auctioning off its trove of 4,400 pieces of art and artifacts since November to generate cash to repay creditors.
To date, Heffel has held one live auction to sell several HBC art pieces. This is the third in a series of online auctions it has hosted with more to follow throughout this year.
While the Olympic jackets adorned with athlete signatures are one of this auction’s highlights, there are also Team Canada shearling hats, luggage, coins, pins and scarves available.
If Olympic memorabilia isn’t your thing, the auction also features fine, postwar and contemporary art from the likes of Max Ackermann and Kuba Bryzgalski, as well as a framed reproduction of the first page of the 1670 charter that formed HBC.
The original artifact was purchased for $18-million late last year by the Thomson and Weston families for donation to the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.
New round of auctions launched for Hudson’s Bay blankets and art
The Barbie part of the collection up for auction includes the Zellers, Barbie on Bay, Arcadian Court, Governor’s Ball, and Calvin Klein Jeans Barbies.
A bear version of the Zellers mascot Zeddy as well as several teddies bearing HBC sweaters and scarfs are also available.
Many of the items hearken back to HBC’s roots as a fur trading company. For example, there’s a fur grader’s lab coat, as well as mink, wool, beaver and leather top hats, six buyers notebooks with handwritten notes and fabric samples and a letter opener from the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, which was HBC’s original name.
The company’s department store days also feature heavily in the items. Available are a 1928 wedding dress and its box, HBC dinnerware, cups and saucers, a picnic cooler, a letterman-style jacket and a sign which appears similar to the coat of arms plaques recently removed from its flagship downtown Toronto store.
Rounding out the items headed for auction are many calendars HBC produced from 1913 to 1970 and distributed for free at its department stores and trading posts.
Some of the items in this auction, like the teddy bears, have an estimated value as low as $25, while the Olympic jackets are expected to be worth a few hundred dollars and the paintings several thousand dollars.
Auction houses like Heffel regularly assign items conservative estimates that are routinely surpassed.
The auction is expected to wrap up Feb. 19.