Compagnie Legaré
These two extraordinary glass panels were saved from oblivion by a quick-thinking vendor at Marché Underground, which is right across the street (eternal thanks Gilles!). The MSP was poised to retrieve all the panels, in cooperation with the property development company involved, but a mix-up stopped the right demolition team getting our message. We thought they’d all gone, until a keen-eyed friend of ours on Instagram commented that at least some of them had survived and were right across the street (thanks Gil!). A local resident (and fellow sign geek), who had kept a close eye on these unique panels, helped us liaise with Gilles, who revealed he’d managed to save two intact panels (thanks Camille!).
The panels are reverse-painted glass, which means the lettering and background colour were expertly applied to the inside surface, by hand, in reverse. Both panels are large, very heavy, and extremely fragile. Our initial guess is that they were installed sometime in the 1930s, thanks in large part to the image research of MSP friend Martin Bérubé. Martin’s ongoing project Propos Montréal offers frequently fascinating insights into Montréal’s street-level architectural histories. Indeed, his posts on Instagram are one of the few reasons the platform remains bearable at this point.
We’re still digging into the history of this distinctive storefront feature (thanks Josh!), which might be termed glass (perhaps Vitrolite) transoms with applied text. We know of only one other local example, in Westmount (thanks Eric!); their rarity is perhaps due to their cost, fragility, and the rise of cheaper, durable plastics.
More to come!