| The Montreal Telegraph Company received its charter by the Quebec legislature on July 3, 1847. The first line spanned from Montreal to Toronto and was completed on the 3rd of August 1847. By December of that year the MTC had constructed 540 miles of wire, had 9 offices and had transmitted 33,000 messages! By 1875 the MTC had 20,000 miles of line in operation, 1400 offices and 2000 employees. By the end of that year at least 2 million messages were transmitted. By the time it was absorbed into the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company system in 1881, the MTC had 21,607 miles of wire in operation! The shape of insulator used extensively on MTC lines is recreated here as a paperweight in an effort to commemorate and preserve a little more of our dwindling Canadian telegraph heritage. |
In the photo:
Top row: The 5 set colors. Medium Cobalt Blue, Teal Blue, Bright Green, Jade Blue Milk, Light Medium Purple.
Bottom Row: A sample of the art pieces: Electric Blue with Green swirls, Clear with Red milk swirls, Cobalt with Electric Blue and Amber swirls, Bubbly Green Jade with Orange Amber swirls, Electric Blue with Cobalt swirls.
"Art" colors will also be available this year. These art pieces are generally 2 or more colors swirled together in the glass. Most of them look like old marbles. They are different than the colors offered in the set. As I am still producing them, I can be encouraged to make a particular color or combination of colors. This is perhaps the only opportunity folks will have to order a glass commemorative and have it custom-colored just the way they want (within reason). The popular colors are things like red, cobalt, amber, green or olive swirling in clear or light blue glass. It's hard to see swirls in darker glass.
Base embossing ("MONTREAL TELEGRAPH 150 YEARS") and skirt-incised date marking "1847-1997" in accordance with NIA reproductions standards, no pin hole provides full dome glass. In response to concerns that these commemoratives look too realistic, they are now virtually a solid-pour, with only a small indentation in the base, and extra lettering has been incised in the skirt on one side. If you don't like the lettering, you can always turn it around to face the other way...
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Please send your questions and comments to Mark Lauckner at
Written Tuesday, March 11, 1997