Pot

Produced by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), this stoneware pot with white glaze and blue coat of arms features a cross, beavers, foxes, moose and the Latin motto pro pelle cutem, meaning “skin for skin”, echoing the company’s activities.

Historically, HBC was a fur-trading company that had a major impact on aboriginal peoples. Founded in London in 1670 by two French coureurs des bois, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseillers, it is today the oldest English-speaking company in Canada.

Throughout its history, the company faced fierce rivalries in the struggle between France and England for control of the fur trade, and for commercial and territorial hegemony. In 1870, the company’s monopoly was abolished, and an act of the British Parliament in 1868 forced the company to surrender possession of its lands to the United Kingdom, which then entrusted them to the newly formed Canada. By the end of the 19th century, HBC had adapted to the decline of the fur trade by diversifying its products. It stocked up on a wider variety of products, and responded to the expansion of the retail trade by opening various department stores from the 1910s onwards. Today, HBC owns some 239 department stores in Canada and the United States.