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The History in Sight Archive, Powell River, BC (2026)

06/14/2026

I picked up this 12 oz United Distillers gin bottle back in April. It’s the first 3 sided UDL bottle I’ve acquired. There were two sizes- the 12 oz (sometimes advertised as 13 oz) and a 25 oz. two of United Distillers London Dry gins, silver Slipper and Silver Fizz, along with their Old Dutch Geneva Square face, were originally sold in these unique bottles. A December 1934 ad states that Silver Fizz is now available in this new “handy-size.” Silver Fizz was the only gin also available in a true 40 oz quart, but I don’t think it was this bottle design. Silver Fizz was sold in the new “flat bottle” in 1936, but Silver Slipper continued to be sold in the 3-sided bottle, though it was now embossed with the product name as well. I haven’t been able to determine what bottles were used for Old Dutch in later years. A later introduction, Dunbar’s Sloe Gin was sold in the flat bottles, and Mistletoe Gin was never sold in the three-sided bottles.

The bottle says R.D. 9136, April 1931, but it appears to have been mislabeled. 9136 is the bottle shown in the first design sketch. The correct registration number is 9133 as you will note in the 3 final documents. It appear that this was a common mistake at UDL as I have two other bottles that both have the number 9135 on them, but the actual documentation for that patent number is for a different design.

06/12/2026

When I did my Felix chronology posts in 2023, I mentioned that the third company, Felix Beverages Ltd was jointly owned by Al Pollard, who played for the BC Lions football team. Pollard, and lawyer Derek LePage, purchased Felix Distributors and Delaware Punch Bottling from Janet Irvine in the summer of 1955. Pollard was president of Delaware, and Vice-President of Felix, while LePage held the opposite roles in the companies. Both companies were managed by Hank Sager.

Pollard was from Glendale, California and first attended Loyola University after high school, but transferred to the US Military Academy in 1949. He sat out for a season due to transfer rules but was very impressive in the 1950 season. Unfortunately, he was embroiled in a “cribbing” scandal and resigned from the Academy. Although offered a few scholarships, but rejected by Notre Dame, he declared himself eligible for the NFL draft. He was drafted by the New York Yanks but was injured in practice. He was used sparingly that season and waived. He moved on to the Philadelphia Eagles and resigned from the team early in the 1954 season to try out in Vancouver. The BC Lions had just joined the Western Interprovincial Football Union (the forerunner to the CFL western conference) in that year. Pollard was a running back and kicker for the Lions, where he played for three seasons.

In addition to operating Felix and Delaware, playing for the Lions, representing Perfex bleach, and hosting a TV sports program, Pollard was also a sports director and disc-jockey at North Van’s fledgling CKLG radio.

Perfex Bleach, represented by A.B. Duncan purchased LePage’s half interest in Felix in the summer of 1956, and they began bottling Nesbitt’s brand soft drinks. In March of 1957, Al Pollard was released by the Lions, mainly because of a feud between he and the head coach which began after Pollard criticized him during a radio program. He sold his interest in Felix Beverages to Henry Steinman, formerly associated with Drewry’s in Winnipeg and signed with the Calgary Stampeders but didn’t even play the full season.

06/10/2026

Felix Bottlers was originally owned by Vancouver Breweries Limited. Every brewery produced beer trays for point-of-sale advertising in the public houses and taverns that they supplied, but trays from soft drink manufacturers are not as prevalent. Felix Bottlers only produced and distributed one tray design that has ever surfaced, commemorating the opening of the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, an event that occurred November 12-14, 1938. While Felix Bottlers used the iconic Felix the Cat as their “mascot” and he adorned most of their labeling, his likeness was not used on this tray. This tray also mentions Evergreen, which was a premium brand of ginger ale and lithiated Club Soda produced by Felix Bottlers, but only for a very short time. Evergreen was introduced in March of 1937, and last advertised in August of 1938, before the bridge even opened. Note that the tray only mentions two flavors, (Felix Orange Dry and Grapefruit Dry had been discontinued), and lithiated lemon Double A was not introduced until 1939. No examples of Evergreen (or Felix Grapefruit and Orange Dry) are known to exist. Only 3 examples of Felix Club Soda have surfaced, a 30 oz in the Museum of Vancouver, and two 12 oz in private collections, one of which is mine.

This tray has been on my wish list for quite a while and is the first one that I have seen come available in 10 years, so I did not hesitate to grab it when I saw it. The etching of one of the CP’s Empress vessels passing under the newly completed bridge is taken from a photograph provided by “L.H. Kean” of North Vancouver. The Empress of Japan departed under the new span June 29, the “Asia” on Sept 3, the “Canada” on Sept 17, and “Russia” on Oct 1, 1939. This is not a well-known image, so no information is readily available. Only two L. Keans resided in North Vancouver at the time, a husband and wife, Louis E. Kean, who was a linotype operator at the Province newspaper, and his wife Lillie (nee Mueller). The photographer is likely Lillie Mueller Kean, with the H being an error. I wonder where the original photo is now…

06/08/2026

I’ve been holding this one back. Not because it’s super old, or highly collectable, but because it’s not the best example. It doesn’t have the original top rim and inset lid, as someone hacked it off 50+ years ago. I have a few potential donor tins and was contemplating removing a rim from one of them and putting it on this can, but after some research I realized it’s not that easy to do, and it’s risky. I have an old hand-crank can lidding tool, but it won’t handle cans this size, and removing the rims can damage the cans. So, I have decided to just leave it as is.

So, what makes this can special? As I’ve stated in previous posts, the blue label (crunchy) peanut butter tins from any manufacturer are always less common than the red label smooth variety. I have four different variations of the McColl’s red label, but for the longest time, I only had one variant of the blue label Peanut Crunch. Then, about 2 years ago, I was able to find a second variant. I found this current one, which is the last of the pre-metric tins, and the only version with the “bugle boy”, on my trip to the city. So, I am only missing one variant now, which would be a short-lived “Hubert the Goober” one, if in fact that variant even exists.

I found this one at the Village Antique Mall in Fort Langley, and the bonus was that I met Kaitlyn, the mall’s social media creator, and owner of .vintage.

06/06/2026

While not specifically Canadian, this great old Garton’s jar ended up here either as an imported food item almost 100 years ago, or in someone’s belongings. I saw it on my friend’s table at the show in April and seeing as I had recently done a post on the Garton’s bottles, I knew I had to have it.

In the 1890s Frederick Gibson Garton had a grocers and provisions shop on Milton Street, in Nottingham. He bottled pickles and developed HP Sauce in a small factory at the rear of his home on Sandon St in New Basford. factory in New Basford. This was located at the rear of his home in Sandon Street. In 1899, his vinegar supplier, the Midland Vinegar Company of Aston Cross, Birmingham, purchased the Garton’s name and his HP Sauce recipe for £150 after he was unable to settle a debt with them. This arrangement also required him to keep out of the sauce and pickles business. Midland Vinegar produced sauces, pickles, and relishes under the Garton’s name.

In 1928, H.P. Sauce Ltd , which bought out Midland Vinegar in 1925, introduced H.P. Pickle relish which was described as “piquant and appetising”, a cross between a fruit sauce and a chutney. It doesn’t appear to have been around long and was replaced in 1932 by a “new” product called Pikanti, which I suspect was just a rebranding.

The small jar in the image on the box in the accompanying photos I found online appears to be similar design to my jar. The one on the box is the 3 1/2 pence trial-size jar. Mine is a 1/2 pint jar and probably sold for around 13 pence. That is, if it is the 1928 jar. It may in fact be older as it has several inclusions, a tooled lip, and is not machine made. I don’t know enough about British glassmaking or even jar making to be able to date it from those characteristics. I do however suspect that it is a relish jar.

# hppickle

06/05/2026

I added a new Chris Morley Victoria bottle this week. It’s a taller Hutchinson bottle and believed to be the second bottle style that he used in Victoria. It is not often seen and is only shown in one bottle book that I am aware of, and I’ve only seen a couple of other examples. I was happy to pay a bit more than I normally would to fill a gap in my collection. It was obviously found in the ocean, so it was pretty foggy, but I applied my secret technique to it and cleared it up substantially. Other than a few very minor fleabites there is no damage to the bottle. Check out the side by side before and after comparison photo in the carousel. I’m quite happy with the result – it displays quite nicely.

Chris Morley and J.K. Greenwood took over Thomas Shotbolt’s soda water operation in 1872, and Morley bought out his partner in 1879 (the same year that Hutchinson stoppers were patented in the US). The green blob-top corker bottle on the left in the group shots is believed to be his first bottle from his solo enterprise, followed by this taller Hutchinson and by 1890 the shorter Hutchinson was in use, though of course they may have all overlapped to some degree. Internal thread stoppers became more common in BC in the 1890s and the bottle on the right in the large group photos in an example of what was probably the second version used by Morley.

06/04/2026

It’s hard to believe that I did my original post on Coast Breweries’ Burton Type Ale in August of 2024. I could have sworn it was only last year. Since that time, two things have surfaced. First, a follower of mine acquired a Westminster Brewery Fine Old English Style with Pride of the Pacific on it. I did not feature that label in my post and I never mentioned such a label existed because I’d never seen one until he sent me a picture of it. It is on a bottle dated 1942, which fits into the 1939-1943 date range that I determined for the Silver Spring variant.

At the show, I acquired the loose label shown here, which threw me for a loop. Note that it says Phoenix Brewing Company (1920) Limited. No such company has ever existed, but it was apparent that putting the full name of Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Company (1920) Limited would have resulted in a tiny unbalanced appearance. Next, I wanted to determine why this anomalous label existed when all the other Victoria labels say Silver Spring Brewery Limited on them. Based on the design, the label appears to be concurrent with the Westminster Brewery label that was used from 1948-Dec 1950, after Burton Type Ale was reintroduced. It appears that I erroneously stated that there were only Westminster labels, as this Phoenix label would seem to contradict that statement. I could not find any advertising for that timeframe that depicts this label – even ads in the Victoria Times and Colonist only show the Westminster label. So, it appears to be a very obscure label. The use of (Victoria) – Phoenix rather than Silver Spring is because Silver Spring Brewery was fully merged into the Victoria-Phoenix Brewery in about 1947, and any former Silver Spring brands that were continued became Vic-Phoenix brands, typically with Silver Spring in the brand name, apart from Burton Ale.

06/02/2026

I don’t have a large vintage Sun-Rype collection, and I would love to grow it if the right items were to come my way. My collection began with a couple of can openers. These were included in every 6-pack of juice in Handi-cans back in the 1960s, before pull tabs were introduced. The openers are quite common. Next, I added the early 1970s apple juice from concentrate can and the blue ball cap crest. Total cash outlay was about $4 for those. During an impromptu pick near Princeton, I grabbed the 48 oz blue-label clear apple juice tin and an orange drink tin with a paper label. I salvaged half the label, but the rest was rust stained. And finally, I recently pried the late 60s Orange-Cot Nectar tin out of the collection of my friend . I have fond memories of drinking that flavour as a kid, along with the McIntosh apple juice.

Sun-Rype began in the late 1930s as a product of a Kelowna fruit packer called Modern Foods Ltd. Modern Foods was bought by the Kelowna Grower’s Exchange in late 1940, becoming their Modern Foods Division. In 1946, the BC Fruit Growers Association, who already operated B.C. Tree Fruits Ltd to market their fruit, created BC Fruit Processors Ltd to process cull fruit into other saleable products. KGE’s Modern Foods had gone bankrupt, so BC Fruit processors too over their facility and the Sun-Rype brand. The rival Okanagan Fruit Juice Company was in financial difficulties, so BCFP bought them out and thus acquired their year-old modern processing plant.

BCFP sold three apple juice products - Sun Rype clear, OK Brand natural, and Apple-Lime. OK Brand became Opalescent, and eventually McIntosh. Sun-Rype clear became known as Blue Label.

Apple-Cot nectar was introduced in 1956 to utilize the Okanagan Valley’s abundant apricot culls. In 1958, Orange-Cot nectar was added to compliment it.

The Sun-Rype products and name proved so successful that in April 1959, BC Fruit Processors Ltd was re-named Sun-Rype Products Ltd.

06/01/2026

While I don’t run with the big dogs when it comes to A&W collecting, I own a few items, mainly because of the connection to transportation history (the old A&W drive-ins), and because the root beer is a nice fit in my “soda pop” collection. It isn’t lost on me either that my brother and his wife own our local A&W restaurant.

I put dibs on this Imperial half gallon early Canadian “ready to drink” jug several months ago, but only recently picked it up on my journey to the city. It is an example of the first style label used in Canada after A&W arrived here in 1956, opening their first restaurant in Winnipeg on Portage Ave. I just realized that it’s their 70th Anniversary this year! This jug itself is dated 1959, and a faint stamp with Vancouver A&W and New Westminster is visible on the right side. This would refer to the original A&W operation in the lower mainland, which was registered on Jan 30, 1959, as Vancouver Specialty Foods Ltd, and renamed Vancouver A&W Drive Ins Ltd on Dec 21, 1959. So, the label is likely 1960 or 1961. The A&W logo was modified in 1961.

This jug was apparently recovered from the original North Vancouver location on Marine Drive during renovations.

Although A&W was originally a subsidiary of the original US chain, which started in 1922 in Sacramento, California. The companies became separate in 1972 when Unilever bought the Canadian subsidiary. In 1995, a group of store managers purchased the Canadian company and created A&W Food Services, headquartered in North Vancouver. The US and Canadian companies have different business models, offer different menus, and are not affiliated. Even the trademarks are owned by separate entities.

A&W Canada is the second largest fast-food hamburger chain in Canada with 1095 locations as of Jan 9, 2026. McDonald's has 1491. As for fast food overall, Tim Horton's has 3,538 locations, and Subway has 3,010.

&W &WCanada &WRootBeer

05/31/2026

Welcome to The History in Sight Archive, aka HIS Archive or simply HIS. A new look and a new name for Historical Information Service, but the same memorable acronym. 🇨🇦

Bringing History into Focus.

This page is dedicated mainly to exploring Canada’s past through a visual lens — with a special focus on British Columbia. From forgotten artifacts to archival photographs and vintage advertising, each post uncovers the stories behind the people, places, and moments that shaped our history.

History isn’t just something we read — it’s something we can see.

Follow along for:

• Artifacts

• Archival images

• Vintage advertising

• Researched mini-stories

• Hidden and overlooked history

The History in Sight Archive

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