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- This column by John Cosway
is a mix of 50 years of media memories and 15 years of buying
and selling experiences via live and online auctions, flea markets,
antique stores and markets etc.
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- Cosway's Corner -
Vintage department store catalogues
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- Nostalgic trip down Eaton's catalogue
lane
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- By John Cosway
- The large and colourful 1937 Eaton's catalogue sat on an
auction table recently looking like a diamond in the rough.
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- A veritable time machine waiting to be purchased and taken
home for a page-by-page journey to a time 72 years ago when the
T. Eaton Co. sold it all via mail order to men, women and children
across Canada.
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- We thought the catalogue's entertainment value alone must
be worth the price of a couple of the spiffy $15 suits advertised
in the 308-page catalogue.
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- But all it took was one bid - our $5 bid.
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- Nothing transports older folks back to their childhood at
Christmas time more than vintage department store catalogues.
Several generations of wide-eyed youngsters scanned the pages
looking for items for Santa's list.
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- Forget the clothing, children always go for the fun stuff.
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- What is now available with the click of a mouse was, in the
19th century, a slower process for families living in remote
communities and largely dependent on mail order catalogues.
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- Eaton's first 32-page mail-order catalogue was printed in
Toronto in 1884 and handed out at the exhibition to mostly visitors
from other cities, towns and villages, giving them easy access
to a wide range of goods.
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- That first fall and winter catalogue emanated from Timothy
Eaton's tiny new store, a 24 by 60-foot outlet at 178 Yonge
Street in Toronto, which opened on Dec. 8, 1869 - 140 years ago.
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- (By the 1920s, the Eaton's catalogue had grown to a weighty
500 pages and was being distributed across Canada.)
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- While Eaton's was a catalogue pioneer, it was not the first
out of the gate. The National Mail-Order Association in the United
States credits Benjamin Franklin with printing the first
mail-order catalogue, a 1744 effort for distribution of scientific
and academic books.
Historians say the first commercial mail-order business catalogue
in the U.S. was one published by Chicago businessman Aaron
Montgomery Ward in 1872. It was for his Montgomery Ward business
and consisted of an illustrated single sheet of paper with a
price list and ordering instructions.
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- It grew to 540 pages within two years.
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- The first Sears catalogue in the United States wasn't published
until 1893, as was Simpson's first catalogue in Canada, all 82
pages. So it was Eaton's first catalogue in 1884 that helped
set the pace for department store mail-order merchandising in
North America.
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 For almost a century,
Canadians sat down with their seasonal Eaton's and Simpson's
catalogues to plan purchases and perhaps circle more expensive
items for their dream list.
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- For men, women and children living in isolated communities,
department store catalogues provided access to a wide range of
merchandise not carried by their local merchants.
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- The fall and winter editions were an opportunity for children
to prepare a detailed list for Santa's attention, including catalogue
numbers, should Santa be in need of an item that is out of stock
at his North Pole retreat.
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- So what was the mood in Canada in 1937, when our vintage
purchased catalogue was first published`? The prime minister
was William Lyon Mackenzie King; the average price of
a new car was under $1,000; gasoline was about a dime a gallon
and you could buy a house for $5,000.
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- We pictured our 1937 Eaton's catalogue arriving in the mail
at the home of an average Canadian family and the page turning
that followed.
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- Say it was a man and wife, with a son and a daughter.
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- The son might have quickly circled the $26.95 Speed King
bicycle, plus the optional 45-cent bulb horn and 95-cent electric
bicycle lamp.
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- Or, if he was into baseball, a new $2.45 baseball glove,
a 95-cent baseball, a beginner's 50-cent bat and a pair of baseball
shoes for $2.95.
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- And who didn't want one of those 35-cent Buck Rogers water
pistols?
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- Those picks would make his day.
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- His sister might have been drawn to the matching brother
and sister outfits for 85 cents each, a colourful 59-cent hat,
or a dress and hat combo for $1.
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- She might have also wanted the $1.39 Eaton's Beauty Doll,
or the 69-cent stuffed cuddly Teddy Bear that growled when hugged.
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- Mother, thinking fall and winter wear, possibly considered
one of the full-length colourful coats at $4.95, or a jacket
for $1.95, plus $1.98 leather pumps with Oxford ties.
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- Living in the age of hats, she might have eyed a "dressy
hat" for $1.69, or the unique "six-way" hat for
$ 1.49, to go with one of the $1-plus dresses.
 Meanwhile, dad might
have flipped to the back pages for new car tires for under $20
each, plus a new $1.10 hammer or a $3.85 plane.
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- For dressing up, perhaps he eyed a stylish $3.50 men's hat,
a $20 Eatonia three-piece suit, a $10.45 overcoat, 50-cent tie,
$5 shoes and $1 dress shirt.
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- Mom and dad, if in need of furnishings, could have discussed
buying the six-piece modern breakfast suite for $51.50, or a
five-piece bedroom suite for $56.50.
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- For home entertainment, there were 78 RPM records featuring
popular artists of the day for 39 cents; a portable gramophone
for $11,95; a Viking long and short wave radio for $54.85.
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- Also popular - The Gene Autry Round-Up Guitar Outfit
for $12,85, including songbooks, a neat gift for young fans of
the Singing Cowboy.
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- If folks couldn't afford cash for all of their selections,
it was $5 down, with the balance to be paid on a "budget
plan."
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- Ah, the good old days of low cost credit.
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- Many of the items can be found 72 years later at estate auctions,
antique stores and markets and flea markets - but not at 1937
Eaton's prices.
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- If you are not a time traveller, count on paying much higher
prices for that collectible 35-cent children's pistol and holster
set, the $5.95 Road King Coaster Wagon and the $2.29 cowboy outfit.
 All good things come
to an end and the much-appreciated free Eaton's catalogues were
mothballed in 1976 after serving customers for almost a century.
Simpson's had surged ahead of Eaton's in sales and the catalogue
became dispensable.
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- Two years later, Simpson's (Simpson's-Sears by then) pulled
the plug on its catalogue, leaving customers of the longtime
rivals to lament their demise.
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- While Sears is the only Canadian provider of department store
catalogues today, specialty chains like Canadian Tire and Home
Hardware continue to publish catalogues, also known as "buying
guides."
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- How will the products and prices in today's catalogues appear
to readers 50 to 75 years from now? Tuck copies away for your
children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to peruse.
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- With e-commerce becoming all the rage, it is doubtful mail
order catalogues will survive the 21st century.
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- Photo credits:
- The Christmas cover photo and the cover of Eaton's first
catalogue courtesy of the Ontario Archives.
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