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I was about ten years old when my mother brought out a can of brass cleaner and asked me to polish our old brass door bell and the brass house numbers on the porch.
I can remember polishing the old brass and enjoying it so that I did it with much enthusiasm and did so for many years after. I loved the exquisite look of the old brass and the deep rich patina with probably a hundred stories to tell. Another family lived in the house for more than 25 years before we arrived.
From that day on I started to hunt down and collect any little bit of interesting antique brass that I would find at flea markets and junk tables, and be able to afford on my allowance. As a teenager I came upon a vintage pocket watch at a flea market which was gold filled over brass. I thought it was the most beautiful case and timepiece I had ever seen. From then on my life's passion started.
I started a collection that included brass cash registers, brass surveyor's equipment, old English brass instruments, telescopes, military and marine brass and of course pocket watches, vintage watch chains, fobs and Victorian jewellery. I amassed a very large number of vintage lady's and men's pocket watches, as well as vintage wrist watches. With no more room to collect, I became one of the original dealers at the Harbourfront Antique Market in Toronto, Canada where I bought, sold and traded for over 20 years. Today finds me running an internet site for the past 12 years.
Ashton-Blakey Vintage Watches grew from a love of collecting beautiful older preowned wrist and pocketwatches. We specialize in Omega, Longines, Breitling, Bulova, Movado, Cartier, Girard Perregaux, Benrus, Ball, Baume & Mercier, Benson, Doxa, Ebel, Elgin, Lord Elgin, Eterna, Gallet, Glycene, Glasschute, Gruen, Hamilton, Hanhart, Heuer, Illinois, IWC International Watch Company, LeCoultre, Patek Philippe, Lemania, Mido, Nivada, Piaget, Rolex, Smith's, Tiffany, Tissot, Universal, Vulcain, Wakmann, Wittnauer, Wyler, Zodiac, Tudor, Waltham, Howard, Hampden, Vacheron, chrongraphs, chronometers, military and more.
http://www.ashton-blakey-antiques.com
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