Carol Sheehan
Contributor
Did you miss this year’s amazing arts and crafts exhibition at the world-renowned Filberg Festival?
Did you miss purchasing that outstanding artwork and have been kicking yourself ever since?
The Filberg Lodge and Park is offering you a second chance to purchase a treasure at this Saturday’s So, You Missed the Filberg Festival? Silent Auction.
The event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Just in time for Christmas, the fully-decorated Lodge will host this unique event featuring art and craft pieces especially selected and generously donated by the artists and artisans of the 2011 Filberg Festival to raise funds for the ongoing task of conservation and preservation of this historic site. In all, there will be over 80 objects featured in the silent auction, priced to fit all budgets.
The auction showcases sterling silver jewelry, stunning hand-painted silk scarves, wooden artworks, iron and stone sculptures for the garden, distinctive toys, one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art, brilliant ceramics, original framed photographs and serigraphs, and hand-blown glass from some of British Columbia’s most outstanding artists.
The Filberg Lodge Gift Shop has also added a few very special collectable pieces to the auction to emphasize the bringing together of old and new that is part of the Filberg’s mission to be a place where history lives.
As a highlight, the auction features an exceptional Victorian sterling silver dance purse and compact. Popular in the mid-19th to early 20th century, evening bags such as this were carried by society women to dances and other social events.
The purses, like the one in the Filberg silent auction, usually contained a dance card, a small goose down powder puff, a place for calling cards and coins, and a mirror. The vintage purse to be auctioned is adorned with a “Lion rampant” image and the initials B.M. on one side and is suspended from a hand-made heavy silver chain typical of the era.
Researched by gift shop co-ordinator Valerie Graham, the purse dates from the 1850s to the 1860s. Her investigations revealed the purse came from an existing James Bay house built in 1894.
“The last elderly owner of the purse died in 1978; she had inherited it from her mother, who also lived well into her senior years,” said Graham. “Thoughtfully, this treasure has been donated by the family to the Filberg to aid in the conservation of the Lodge. We’re so grateful.”
With the combined focus of old and new, the Filberg’s Silent Auction also includes contemporary works from the Filberg Festival such as Darrell Hancock pottery, Ted Jolda blown glass, Stephanie Ann glass and silver jewelry, and Tony Gusman framed photography.
The Gift Shop will be open for the Silent Auction on Nov. 19 as a prelude to three special Christmas openings Nov. 25 to 27, Dec. 2 to 4 and Dec. 9 to 11. For these events complimentary gift-wrapping is available for all gift shop purchases.
Bring the family. Come and make a bid or two, or just browse. This event offers an opportunity to do some early Christmas gift shopping, see the Filberg Lodge in all its holiday glory and enjoy complementary refreshments—and while you’re there—to soak up a little bit of Island history.