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Iconic Empress letters to be sold, replaced with LED versions

For the better part of half a century, Victorians and visitors from around the world have been greeted by 10 letters in a distinctive script identifying the Empress Hotel on the Inner Harbour.
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Lunds Auctioneers receptionist Tara McMurdo with some of the old "The Empress" letters up for auction.

For the better part of half a century, Victorians and visitors from around the world have been greeted by 10 letters in a distinctive script identifying the Empress Hotel on the Inner Harbour.

Today, the once brightly lit letters are up for bids at Lunds Auctioneers on Fort Street. Lot 526 has a sale price estimated at $100 to $300, but company president Peter Boyle said it’s impossible to predict the top offer. The two-to-five-foot letters leaning on the wall have sparked interest and some consternation from people who think the hotel’s owners should keep things as they are, he said.

Traditionalists need not fear, however. The replacement sign will be an “exact replica,” but in energy-efficient LED, said Empress spokeswoman Angela Rafuse-Tahir. “It’s iconic and people love it.”

The new sign should be up by the end of May, barring any delays.

The old sign went up in late 1970, according to the Times Colonist’s files, the culmination of a $5-million renovation project that had begun four years prior.

The lighting system was designed and installed by B.C. Hydro.

“Someone is going to acquire an amazing, sentimental piece of history,” Rafuse-Tahir said in an email.

The original was removed to perform building and masonry repairs that are part on an ongoing renovation costing well over $30 million. There were also concerns the sign would not be salvageable for many more years, given decades of exposure to the elements, she said.

The Empress did not always have a sign on its Inner Harbour side, according to a photo that looked to be from the 1940s, while a March 1957 photo shows a crown logo and the name in a simple font.

The Empress sign isn’t the only bit of local history on auction. Seven pieces of Florentine-style painted bedroom furniture from the Ross Family of Butchart Gardens fame are up for sale for an estimated price of $250 to $350. A total of 750 lots of Ross-related items are slated for auction Oct. 22.

kdedyna@timescolonist.com