OT:Vancouver Wnidow Display from 1959 (features tools)

Sep 15, 2019 Last reply: 7 years ago 14 Replies
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If it works, the above link should show a Vancouver window display from 1959. Leaving aside the grumpy looking kid in the middle, if the picture magnifies o.k, it shows the sort of items sold in the sort of shop which seems to have totally disappeared in most. places.



Mixing clearly secondhand items such as the medals, with the boxed set of chisels which are clearly new.



The tool at the bottom left looks interesting. A handle with four rotating sockets at either end; so 8 sockets in one tool. Whether it would be robust enough for heavy work may be questionable maybe it was a general purpose socket spanner for a car toolkit. Looking through old catalogues there's nothing similar however.



Looking at it it seems the shopkeeper or his assistant must have spent an awful lot of coming out from behind the counter and outside the shop with the customer so that he (at an educated guess) could point out what he wanted. Also the lack of price tickets would seem to suggest a time when people trusted shopkeepers not to rip them off but charge a fair price.



The picture is from Flashbak a very good site featuring old photos from the 20's to the present day. But mainly of London, New York and the odd exception Birmingham and Liverpool in the UK San Francisco in the US or Vancouver as here. So maybe of lesser interest if you don't live in those places.


michael adams



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Fascinating site - now bookmarked for future exploration. Thank you!!!

Nick

It all looks second hand to me.

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Looks like a pawnbroker's to me.

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Owain

I think that is the first time I have seen a double ended adjustable spanner.

Second hand shop IMV I remember similar over here. There would be S/H bikes round the back. Now we chuck unwanted stuff away. What a waste that nobody wants it. They just sit and whine about poverty.

I like it.

I'll take the double-ended adjustable, the multi-headed thing, and a shiny blowlamp, please.

Why ever mark it "OT", though? Almost made me ignore it -- but I wondered how Vancouver Windows entered into the Current Confusion and looked.

Thomas Prufer

Well spotted, it was you identified the Starbucks chairs as well IIRR. Afterwards I was kicking myself for not having googled it myself before posting but maybe I'd still have been none the wiser.

It would be interesting to know if such a design has been in continuos production I certainly can't find anything by a mainstream manufacturer (tempting fate). I imagine the pivots would be a weak point.

michael adams

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As its so rare he gets anything right, and you probably have him killfiled in any case , may I present

- Me too, but its not at all clear what the story with the - top jaw is, even when you zoom in a lot on the top jaw.

michael adams

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There are plenty of Pawnbrokers around only some/many of them go under the name of "Cash Converters" and similar. Thinking about it they also sell new looking watches etc alongside top end secondhand tools Hilti etc, cameras, phones and laptops etc.

The thing about that shop is the number of relatively low value items on display unless he was also buying up auction lots as well.

michael adams

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Indeed I do - he vanishes in a puff of electrons before he contaminates my newsfeed.

The top jaw looks fine to me, however its partly obscured by the metal hanging hook that is suspending the spanner.

It's the bottom half of the top jaw which looks a bit odd. Going by the top half it has a bigger capacity than the lower jaws, but the bottom half which is obscured by the hook still looks out of proprtion with the top half, which you can actually see..

michael adams

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Yes, but I don't think Harold has been back to notice, he has a munged email address, otherwise I'd contact him directly ..

Apparently aka "dog bone" wrench or spanner

commonly used as bicycle spanners.

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