Antique Elkington Silver Bread Tray Windsor Hotel Montreal Serving Bowl 1906

This is an antique Elkington silver plated bread tray or serving bowl used at the Windsor Hotel of Montreal circa 1906. The Windsor Hotel was opened in 1878 and was Canadas first grand hotel. It has quite the history. It was connected to the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) Windsor station and the president of both the CPR and Grand Trunk Railway had permanent residences in the hotel. Among the guests who stayed there were Sarah Bernhardt, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Lillie Langtry and Oscar Wilde. It was the social centre of the city of Montreal and in 1917 the owners of the Montreal Canadiens and a number of other hockey teams met and formed the NHL (National Hockey League) there. In 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed there during their Royal Visit.
This piece is engraved in the center of the interior with The Windsor along with its coat-of-arms. The underside of the piece is stamped Elkington & Co with the Elkington hallmarks and a date code of U in a square, which dates the piece to 1906. Also stamped on the underside is the hotel supply company A.T. Wiley Coy Limited Montreal. Coincidently, in 1906 the hotel suffered a major fire, which destroyed 100 guest rooms. Due to this, the hotel actually expanded, adding a wing and doubling its rooms from 368 to 750, so this tray may have been added due to the expansion. The tray measures 7 1/2 by 12 with a height of 2 - it is quite substantial, weighing 1 lb and 2 oz. It does have wear commensurate with a piece of its type that saw use in a hotel dining room. There are surface scratches, a couple of tiny dings and an unusual solder-like bump (see last close-up photo). In addition, the logo and The Windsor are a little light, but certainly legible. The silver plating, however, is still quite shiny.
This is a wonderful piece of Montreal history - attractive piece of hotel silverware from Canadas first grand hotel, The Windsor!