Antique Grand Trunk Railway Fort Garry Hotel Tray 12”

This antique Grand Trunk Railway square tray features the crest of the Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg, and is marked “Grand Trunk Pacific”,  The Grand Trunk Railway constructed the Fort Garry Hotel between 1911 and 1913, opening in December of 1913.  The Fort Garry Hotel was the second hotel to be built by the Grand Trunk Railway, after the opening of the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa in 1912, part of the Grand Trunk Railway’s strategy to vertically integrate their services.  This tray would have been used to serve customers at the hotel and dates to the opening years of the hotel.  The piece is silverplate over copper with a shaped edge in the Rococo Revival style and bears the maker’s mark of Martin Hall & Co. Ltd, Sheffield, along with a registration number and the retailer’s name, Porte & Markle. We can date the tray as the British registry number of 564096 dates the tray’s design to 1910 and Porte & Markle was absorbed into Birk’s in 1913.  The Grand Trunk Railway became part of the newly formed CNR (Canadian National Railway) in 1923.

The tray measures 12 inches square and is well worn, with surface scratches and small dings / gouges, visible spots where the silver-plate is worn, and tarnish consistent with age and use - please view the enlarged photos.  I cleaned and polished it as best as I could, taking less time with the underside - a professional silversmith could do much better.

A rare piece of Grand Trunk Railway history, ideal for collectors of railroadiana, hotel silver, or early 20th-century Canadian memorabilia…..