Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
Today’s questions are about an Underground Railroad soul food restaurant matchbook and liquor decanters.
Question:
Thank you for writing this blog. I have come across some matchbooks, one such is from the restaurant called Tha Underground Railroad Soul Food Restaurant at 225 King St. East Toronto, Canada. I’m curious if someone might be interested in having these matchbooks.
Answer:
I’ve written often about matchbooks, which are commonly not very valuable. The reader wants to sell, but I don’t put buyers and sellers together on my blog post – for liability reasons – and I usually suggest that sellers head on over to eBay to list their items.
What I found intriguing about this reader’s email was the restaurant itself, so I Googled. Seems that the Underground Railroad restaurant opened in 1969 as Canada’s first soul food eatery and was around for about 20 years. The restaurant was very popular, and drew tourists, locals, celebrities and professional athletes with such dishes as:
“Pig’s feet boiled to tender perfection and drenched in mushroom sauce. Annamae Salad, a colourful cabbage slaw with apples, pineapples, and nuts tossed with mayonnaise. Casper Squash mashed with shredded coconut and sweetened with sugar. Mouth-watering barbecued ribs, collard greens, and black-eyed peas. A complimentary basket of corn bread with every meal. Followed by sumptuous, lighter-than-air peach cobbler or sweet potato pie, seasoned with rum, cinnamon, and nutmeg for dessert.”
The idea for a soul food restaurant in Toronto came from John Henry Jackson, a Georgia native who moved to the city in 1960 as quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts. Once there, he could not find the food he had loved back home. Some years later three people – fellow Argos player David Mann, jazz drummer Archie Alleyne and entrepreneur Howard Matthews – agreed to invest in this venture with him.
The restaurant was an instant hit. Matthews noted at its opening on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1969: “Our aim is to put some more colour in Toronto.” Its clientele was diverse, its prices moderate, its atmosphere hospitable, and its food apparently delicious. I came across some chatter in a Chowhound forum from folks reminiscing about how good the food was.
It drew celebrities who found the restaurant relaxing – a place where they could be themselves – including Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes, B.B. King, Peter O’Toole, Lee Majors and Bill Cosby. The restaurant opened on Bloor Street and four years later moved to King Street. It closed in 1988, reopened in 1989 and closed for good in 1990.
As for the matchbook, I could not find one for sale like it on the web, but I did find one matchbook that was part of a collection. A cursory search on eBay for Black Americana restaurant matchbooks turned up a variety of other such items, which sold for $6.99 to $53.
Question:
We are looking to sell Wild Turkey decanters.
Question:
I have several Wild Turkey, Captain Morgan and Lord Calvert decanters for sale, all in perfect condition.
Answer:
Both of these readers came across a blog post I wrote three years ago about Wild Turkey bourbon decanters that were sold at auction around Thanksgiving time. There were seven of them for sale, and I learned that they were called figural decanters. They were limited edition pieces made in the 1970s as part of Series #1 by then-manufacturer Austin Nichols. That first series was numbered 1-8, and was followed by others.
Neither of the readers gave any details about their decanters. It’s tough for me to offer help without more information about what series or year the decanters were made.
I’d suggest that both readers try Google and eBay to look for their particular decanters and to find out what they sold for. EBay is a particularly good place to sell the decanters because it’s such a huge marketplace. Be sure to check the auction site’s “Completed Listings,” which shows what items actually sold for (not the asking price).
In a cursory check of eBay, I found that sold prices for Wild Turkey decanters were all over the place, depending on the decanter. In most instances, though, they were not selling at all. The highest I saw was a complete set of eight Series 1 decanters that sold for $328. Other complete sets did not sell. “King of America’s Forest Birds” decanters from 1987 appeared to be very popular and were selling quite well ($225 and $425 with a certificate of authenticity).
Captain Morgan decanters seemed to fare better and Lord Calvert, not so well.
