A hand-painted bottle by an Edmonton artist has made its way from Holland to Canada.
The bottle is believed to have been painted during the Liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War by M. Hrudey from the Royal Canadian Engineers.
Twan de Kok is from Holland, but now lives in B.C. and inherited the bottle from his mother-in-law.
“How my wife’s grandma had it all that time, I don’t know how she got it,” said de Kok from his home in 100 Mile House.
“It ended up in my house, and we moved to Canada in 2003 from Holland and the bottle came with us.”
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The art piece appears to be on a large old wine bottle. On top it says the Royal Canadian Squadron, below it says the Royal Canadian Engineers. On the side there is a Canadian maple leaf, and on the other side there is the number 46. It’s signed M. Hrudey, Edmonton Alberta.
“The bond between Canada and Holland is really tight,” said de Kok.
“We tried to contact his grandson in Edmonton and he got back to us and he told us his grandpa was a painter during the war,
“We asked at the time if the family was interested in having it and they were not,” he said.
While de Kok says he has a special connection with the piece, he believes it’s time for it to go to a new home.
“It’s just collecting dust.”
“The fact that we had this in our home (for) a long time and then we decided to move to Canada, it’s not because of the bottle, but it’s quite interesting that it all happened and that we can bring it to Canada.”
“I would really like it to go to a museum, or something, or maybe a legion, who’s interested to put it on display or maybe when the family sees this, they actually want it.”
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