Artist Statement: 

The John Bertram and Sons Company Limited, originally called Canada Tool Works, was founded in Dundas in 1861.  To create this tile, I selected several items that tell some of the Bertram’s significant story from the holdings of the Dundas Museum and Archives.  These items included ribbons from the annual employee picnic, the beautifully textured leather diary of Stirling Aimers Bertram, a soldier in WWI, family photographs, photos of the shop floor and the employees, documents, invoices, pamphlets and newspaper articles. 

I photographed these items and created image transfers and decals that were transposed onto white earthenware and porcelain and glazed into the frames, which were inspired by the Hollinger archival boxes used to store the original documents and items.  I also took clay pressings of medals that the Bertrams received from the Rose Society of Ontario for their beautiful rose garden, war medals, the Order of Canada, their gravestones and other items and incorporated these textures into the tile. 

The eight components are themed according to the elements that are included in them – the Bertrams and war, the company, the estate and rose garden, the family, the records, the employer, the legacy left behind, and finally the archival history.