Hudson’s Bay will seek court approval to put the royal charter that launched the company 355 years ago on the auction block, along with its trove of art and historical artifacts.
The collapsing department store chain known as Canada’s oldest company said it’s applying to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to sell the items, which would ensure some of its most valuable and historical assets get the “care, consideration and expertise required” and “can be fully prioritized through a separate process facilitated by a fine art auction house.”
Hudson’s Bay has yet to detail the catalogue of items it wants to hit the auction block but the collection traces the path Hudson’s Bay took as it transformed from a fur trading powerhouse in the 17th century to one of the country’s most iconic retailers.
More than one company, it tells much of Canada’s story as well and includes the company’s crown jewel — the charter it was granted by King Charles II in 1670.
In addition to establishing Hudson’s Bay as a fur trading company, the document gave the company rights to a vast swath of land and extraordinary power over trade and Indigenous relations for decades more.
Mark Garner, who runs a Hamilton, Ont., museum dedicated to a Hudson’s Bay steamship, calls the charter the “Holy Grail.”
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“That’s a very important piece of paper. In the United States, that would be like the Declaration of Independence,” he said. “That’s what our history is made from.”
Garner owns hundreds of pieces connected to the Bay and the S.S. Beaver, a ship the company owned since the 1800s.
It ran aground at Prospect Point in B.C. in 1888 and sat there for four years, being pillaged of its wood and other mementos, until it sank in 1892. Garner developed a lifelong interest in the ship because a distant relative, Charles McCain, got the salvage rights to the boat and melted down its semi-precious metal to create commemorative medals.
Garner believes the Bay’s collection will be vast and varied. It may contain pelts or point blankets from the company’s earliest days along with wood from the S.S. Beaver and captain’s logbooks Garner said used to be displayed in store windows in the 1890s.
“There could be some very valuable pieces, some of which I’ve been searching for 20 years and unable to find,” he said.
He imagines the sale will fetch the Bay millions, because many of the items are “one of a kind.”
The Bay hasn’t said how much it hopes to raise from the auction, which will be run separate from two other processes underway to uncover buyers for its licenses, brands and takers for its leases.
The searches have been necessary because the retailer owes millions to creditors. It filed for creditor protection last month, leading to the liquidation of 74 Bay, two Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off 5TH stores. Six stores remain open but are seeking a long-term lifeline.
Sales of art and artifacts could back off creditors and prolong those six stores’ run, but Garner worries it will also lead to history winding up out of public view.
Garner, who displays his entire collection at his museum, hopes any pieces auctioned off don’t land in long-term storage or on a millionaire’s wall.
“It just concerns me that a lot of these historic value items might disappear from sight,” he said.
