When I was younger, I thought the table, chairs, buffet and china cabinet in our family’s dining room had always been there and I simply took them for granted. But I later learned they had come to us at some unknown-to-me time and place from a cousin of our dad’s, whom he called “Cousin Sybil.” As I scanned old family photos last year, I spotted interior shots of our various homes, usually taken at family celebrations. Looking carefully at these first two, I noticed that at Christmas dinner in 1952 in Windsor, we were sitting on quite different chairs from those I know now. Then, in 1954, the furniture in the picture is that which is familiar to my sisters and me. The two photos have been taken from opposite ends of the table. So, clearly, this furniture came to our family at that time.
A Christmas card received in 1960 from Cousin Sybil says, in part:
“…imagining you in your beautiful cathedral on the Sunday and in your new home at the dinner table on Monday. How thankful I am that my treasured belongings found a good and worthy home and the story could be repeated over and over again.”
Further research has revealed that Sybil was a first cousin of Ernest Burch, our dad’s father, as her mother, Fanny Thorp and Ernest’s mother, Harriet Thorp, were sisters. (If you’re interested, that makes Sybil my second cousin once removed, or a second cousin three times removed to my grandchildren.)
Sybil never married, but remained in the family home at 31 Oxford Street in Guelph, Ontario, caring for her parents. Ten or so years after her mother’s 1942 death, she downsized and moved into a senior’s residence, Preston Spring Gardens, living there until her own death in 1974. That is how our parents came to own these pieces which had been commissioned in Guelph by Sybil’s father, an architect. The same furniture appears in family photos in each of our homes in Edmonton.
When our parents moved to Victoria in 1976, the first home they lived in did not have room for this set, and I don’t at the moment recall exactly how they solved that problem. I believe they placed the china cabinet in the living room and the buffet in the basement. About a year later, they sold that small house and bought the one on Richmond Avenue, where the dining room once again housed the Guelph suite. The upper section of the buffet was removed to allow for that large round decorative plate to hang above, and Peggy used it for a headboard in her bedroom for many years.
After our Dad’s death in 2003, I brought all the pieces back to Alberta, as part of my share of our parents’ estate. The large dining room on the farm had plenty of room to show these pieces to good advantage, especially after Rob lovingly refinished the “headboard” portion of the sideboard — who knows, maybe it still bore traces of a certain glass of milk once hurled at it!– and reattached it to the heavy base. He always intended to refinish the table, too, as it had suffered some sun damage over the years in Dad’s bright and cheerful dining room, but he only managed to complete one leaf. I filled the china cabinet with treasures old and new, from both sides of our family.
To me, although these pieces are definitely “treasured belongings” as they were to Sybil, they also seemed to be simply old, second or even third-hand used family furniture. I was surprised one day when a visitor to our home asked where we had acquired so many beautiful antiques! Considering that they were probably created in the 1890s, they are indeed exactly that, and I am grateful for the attitude adjustment!
In 2013 it was all on the move again. The dining room furniture has once again returned to Ontario, where it was crafted, and soon after our arrival here, we found an excellent craftsman who refinished the table to its former burnish. It has been the scene of many happy family celebrations at 27 Quinpool since 2013. Long may the tradition continue!
Tags: Burch