Miss Rednersville?

We love to get email from folks who grew up in this area or who used to live in Prince Edward County and have re-discovered the Rednersville Country Store by nostalgically googling around the internet looking for Rednersville.

We've even had people email us who used to work here in the country store in bygone days—like this note from Shirley LaPalm, who married Russ Fralick:

Hi, I was browsing around on the internet and thought I'd see what came up for Rednersville, and was so surprised to see your wonderful website! I grew up in Rednersville, lived there for 15 years, I even worked in the Country Store for a summer. It was owned by Paul Boyd at that time and run by the Conways. I remember when it had a lunch counter, at one time it had a barber shop in the front window. It sure has changed over the years and it's nice to see it back to it's original condition. I loved viewing the pictures on your site, it brings back a lot of memories, it was a great place to grow up, swimming at Dempsey's dock in the summer, tobagganing at Redners dump in the winter. I live in B.C. and haven't been back in 8 years but each time I come back I always have to stop in at the Country Store. It was over 30 years ago that we lived there, we lived beside the church, the house is long gone now, but our name was LaPalm, I wonder if anyone remembers us.

Thanks for your site on Rednersville, I really enjoyed it and will visit often.—Russ and Shirley Fralick

If you're stopping by for a visit at the Rednersville Country Store online, and have a story to tell about the store or the area, please don't hesitate to send us an email, even if you just want to say, "Hi, I miss Rednersville."

Wayback Times

The Wayback Times is a bi-monthly Ontario newspaper for the antique lover, the traveler and the newcomer to antiques. It offers a new, friendly forum to learn about Ontario's history and Canada's memories through antiques. Curiously enough, it's published not far from the Rednersville Country Store—right on Rednersville Road—if you can believe the coincidence.

The Wayback Times is free. (How's that for a deal?) The paper gets widespread circulation through most of the better antique shops, and at all of the major antique shows. So, ask for it from your local dealers and read the articles from past issues online.

One article in particular caught our attention—"In the Hunt." In that article, Yvonne Butorac wrote about the architecture and antiques of our area.

Sometimes where the hunt takes you is as interesting as the hunt itself. On a recent visit to the editor's territory I was as struck by Prince Edward County's wonderful heritage buildings as I was by the antiques offered in the local shops. Somehow hunting for treasures surrounded by reminders of an area's rich history enhances the experience.

Our sentiments, exactly. Hopefully, Yvonne will stop by our heritage country store next time she's hunting for antiques and collectibles in the County. We'd love to have a visit and share stories about wayback times.

Rednersville Country Store, Online

All too often, antique dealers operate their businesses much the same as retailers did when their products were brand new.

The Rednersville Country Store serves customers in the local community in a real, bricks and mortar, antique shop that is authentic. Some things never change around these parts; folks like it that way. For many of our customers, it's an important part of the fun of collecting to go antique hunting on the backroads of historic communities like Prince Edward County.

At the same time, it's now just as important to reach out and connect with new customers, in faraway places, who are using the power of the internet to locate specific collectibles in places they couldn't possibly visit, except online.

When we purchased the Rednersville Country Store, with a view toward restoring this important historic building and opening a new business offering high quality antiques and memorabilia, we were committed to operating our antique business with all the advantages of modern technology.

Launching a new website at Rednersville.com, including an extensive gallery of antiques and collectibles with detailed descriptions, photographs and prices, the Rednersville Country Store has established a new address on the worldwide web.

What I bought on eBay

"I have known about ebay since 1996 and been a user/member since 1998 so as you can see.. I'm pretty addicted! But nowadays I mainly sell things instead of buying them."

So, it was pretty funny when I heard this song by Weird Al.

Okay, you think that's weird? A decade-old toasted cheese sandwich said to bear an image of the Virgin Mary has sold on the eBay auction website for $28,000. I believe in miracles!

What the heck is this?

Every once in a while, we post a photograph of one of our antiques and collectibles from the Rednersville Country Store and ask the question, "What the heck is this?"

If you know the answer and want to show off your antiquarian intelligence, or just want to hazard a guess, write your thoughts in the comments below this post. You can post your opinion or guess anonymously, but it's a good idea to make up a nickname for yourself in your comment, so we can tell one anonymous commentator from another.

Check out the comments from time to time, to see what our readers think. If clues are needed, we'll be posting hints here every week until it's correctly identified.

If you know somebody who might know what the heck this is, you can easily e-mail them a link to this photo by clicking the "envelope" button below so they can get in on the fun.

The Antique of the Week - Vally Wieselthier Lamp

The Antique of the Week is a good example of the eclectic mix of collectibles that find their way into the Rednersville Country Store from time to time. This item isn't so much country, as it is of the "old country"--made in Austria, a work of art that likely came to North America with European immigrants before World War II.

This lamp is a one of a kind work of art by Vally Wieselthier, a prominent artist of the Wiener Werkstaette, or Vienna Workshop.

In June 1903, the Wiener Werkstaette (WW) was founded in the form of a “productive co-operative of craftsmen” by Josef Hoffmann and Kolo Moser under the patronage of the Viennese industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer. The company’s aim was to reform the contemporary applied arts with works of exceptional quality.

The idea of an equality of applied arts and the traditionally “free” fine arts, on the one hand, and the penetration of all areas of life with arts, on the other, were the basic principles of Wiener Werkstaette. The proclaimed aim was to surround the daily life with beautiful items, and thus to create a “total work of art”. Within three decades, a group of highly qualified architects and craftsmen succeeded in realising their dream of the “total work of art” in the form of buildings and interiors. The most significant example is Palais Stoclet in Brussels, which was designed by Josef Hoffmann and entirely furnished by the Wiener Werkstaette.

The field of activity of the Wiener Werkstaette was extensive: beside furniture they produced tableware, cutlery, jewellery, enamels, ceramics, and pieces of glass, book covers, wall papers, different types of papers, but also post cards and short-lived fashions were part of their oeuvre.

The Wiener Werkstätte, an eclectic mix of artisans and designers, had a clear aim and purpose: to make all facets of human life into one unified work of art. Their products ranged from architecture to minor utensils, and comprised all fields of domestic culture.

Notable amongst these artists for her work in glass and ceramics was Vally Wieselthier (1895-1945) who began working at the Wiener Werkstaette in 1917, during her studies at the Vienna Arts and Crafts School. At first she worked on unique ceramic articles and series in the Künstlerwerkstätten, and later worked on commissions in her own studio.

The foundation of the Wiener Werkstaette’s own ceramics department in 1917 brought with it a new era of creativity above all in the person of the artist Vally Wieselthier. In contrast to the partly baroque forms of her teacher Michael Powolny, she developed a new language of form and uniquely contributed to a revival of this genre. The original ceramics of the 1920s on show are among others by the artists Vally Wieselthier, Susi Singer and Gudrun Baudisch. Their ceramics stand out due to their expressive-dynamic colouring and reflect the sculptors’ playful and experimental applications of glazes as a means of artistic expression.

Vally Wieselthier, ceramist, sculptor, and designer is consideredinternationally one of the most important representatives of ceramic sculpture during the 20's and 30's. Her pieces are in museums, and have sold at international auction houses. This unique work of functional art is being offered for sale by auction on eBay, where we extend this once-in-a-rare-while purchase opportunity to a worldwide audience of experienced collectors of art nouveau.