Magda Konieczna

Brilliant Recovery

appeared in Western Living summer 2004

At any moment of any day Architectural Antiques is a shrine to antique lighting. Typically 300 to 500 fixtures hang from the ceiling in the Main Street premises, while a similar number undergo repair and restoration. Buyers from around the world arrive to assay period Victorian or craftsman fixtures. The company is one of a handful with Canadian Standards Association certification, allowing reconditioned lights to be installed in new construction.

Every fixture tells a story, but few are as intriguing as that surrounding a chandelier currently on display. Last year proprietor Eric Cohen got a call from a woman in Abbotsford claiming to have a light that had once hung in the Empress Hotel. Her house had just been sold and she had to get rid of it right away. “I’d never even been to Abbotsford,” Cohen says, which didn’t stop him from driving out to see.

Not clear from the phone call was that the fixture was largely disassembled and in poor condition—or that it resided in a barn amid a pile of manure. Cohen bought it anyway and took it back to Vancouver for reconditioning and, well, cleaning.

Ninety man-hours later the 44-inch fixture glows again in the shop that Cohen runs with his wife, Judith. However, behind the sparkle lies a layer of intrigue. Cohen was told the chandelier had been removed from the Empress ballroom in the 1950s, but further investigation revealed that the chandeliers hanging there are originals and don’t match the style of this one. Local history expert Donald Luxton agrees that the chandelier must have come from one of the grand hotels—homes of the period were not made to support such fixtures. But the grand hotel in this case may have been the second Hotel Vancouver. Hundreds of chandeliers were removed when it was torn down in 1949, making it an important source of antique lighting.

Regardless of where the fixture came from, it will not hang in the shop for long. An explosion of interest in period-style houses, often very large, has meant a tight market for chandeliers. Someone in Abbotsford may be laughing just now, but they’re not the only one. 2403 Main Street, 604-872-3131, www.vaaltd.ca.