Eclectic Tastes: Fine and Decorative Arts from the McCord

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Montreal’s McCord Museum has an extensive collection of objects from
19th-century Canada. This catalogue is a guide to the objects that were
selected from that collection for a spring 1992 exhibition.

The exhibit includes a few paintings, some pottery, eclectical silver,
furniture, carvings, a model of a horse-drawn hearse, clocks, and
assorted oddments. The only unifying theme apparent in the selection is
that all are Victorian, at least in spirit, and most are highly ornate.
For each of the 69 objects, there is a black-and-white photo and a note
giving details of material, date of manufacture (if known), name of
donor, country/province of origin, and any further details known about
the piece. The text is bilingual. For 15 of the objects, a color plate
is included.

Many of the photos, however, are too small to show details well, and
the selection of objects of any one type is too limited to be
informative. The strength of the book is its essays on the production of
parian porcelains, relief-moulded jugs, and papier-mвché furniture.
Except for these essays, the book has limited value apart from its role
as guidebook and souvenir for visitors to the McCord exhibit.