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$3,350

Charming lithographed depiction of Montreal's second Winter Carnival, held February 4-9th, 1884. The idea of a carnival in the city was first proposed in 1882 at the annual banquet of the venerable Montreal Snowshoe Club. The following year, an impressive ice palace was erected in Dominion Square,the first such palace to be constructed since 1754, when one was built in St. Petersburg in honour of the Empress Anne of Russia. The palace was designed by Montreal architect Alexander Cowper Hutchison (1838-1922), one of Canada's most prestigious and prolific architects. Trained as a stone mason, Hutchison built the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Montreal's city hall, and other important edifices. The palace constructed in 1883 served as a practice run for Hutchison, who wanted to test the strength of the ice and feasibility of electric lighting. There were 4 more carnivals over the next six years, and each castle became more elaborate. The turreted, multi-chambered palace depicted here was only slightly smaller than the one erected the following year in 1885, which cost $5000 and required 12,000 blocks of ice hewn from the frozen surface of the St. Lawrence river.

* * 'Montreal Clic'(1994, vol. 2) Centre d'histoire de Montreal; http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chm/clic/clic16.htm