One sunny afternoon a man walked up to me and asked if he could talk to me about a picture hanging in the restaurant. He told me that he was the Curator of the Toronto Maritime Museum. He wanted to talk about a picture of the sailing ship named the Cecil P. Stewart.
He explained that the Cecil P. Stewart was an actual ship and the picture was old and very valuable. The gentleman informed me that back before there were cameras, the owner of these types of ships would hire an artist to paint while the ship had its sales aloft. The ship owner would hang the picture over the mantle so his guests would be able to see what he owned… quiet bragging rights.
The Curator also told me to go to a framer and get a proper museum-quality backing on the picture, since ship owners would use these types of paintings to stash money or other valuables behind them, since banks weren’t readily available.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything behind the picture when we looked!
