OCH MoT SHOP: The Chocolate Butterfly of Toronto

Pre-Covid, there were over 110 butterfly conservatories or galleries in the world, on every continent except Antarctica, including three in Ontario and two claiming to be the "largest in Europe": one in Spain, one in Turkey. Each has a gift shop.

Butterflies are SO popular that there may be as many butterfly-themed t-shirts, mugs, stickers, hair clips, fridge magnets, calendars etc. as winged insects in the Amazon but there is always appetite for MORE.

Meanwhile, displayed are extremely rare cards created in the 1920s to tuck into chocolate bars of the then-named Patterson Candy Co. Ltd. Some of the exotic homes of the butterflies listed on the card backs include: America, Belgium, Bombay, Borneo, Brazil, Java, Madras, New Guinea, New Mecklenburg, Sumatra and Venezuela.

"The Chocolate Butterfly" was Patterson's tasty symbol.

These cards are a fraction of the original 24 in the set. With luck, Toronto History Museums will have the rest and in better condition. For the cost of 10 cents' worth of stamps, Patterson's offered to mail out free albums to hold the full collection so there must be one stashed in an attic somewhere.

Even these few cards could be retouched and developed (with or without the Patterson's logo) into prints, fridge magnets, tea towels etc. because their Japanese art-influenced, '20s era designs -- and even the quaint fact that they're from 100-year-old candy bar cards. They would make them charming additions to the world of butterfly art.

The possibility exists that if OCH Gift Shop has enough funds, it could wholesale made-in-Toronto, butterfly card-themed prints and magnets plus overseas-made tea towels to the largest butterfly conservancies around the world. Or at least to those in Ontario, Newfoundland and B.C. Or at a minimum to Niagara Park's conservatory. All would publicize the existance of the Museum of Toronto.