When collecting is in your blood
Norm West’s passions and pursuits
Miller & Miller’s December 6th sale of Petroliana & Historic Advertising features exclusively the collection of Norm West, pictured above.
You know you’ve got it bad when you use your mortgage payment to buy a collectible oil can you just can’t resist.
But Norm West makes no apologies for his addiction to collecting anything old and interesting that catches his fancy, whether it’s motorcycle themed, farm-related items, artwork or things automotive. “If I see something I like, I buy it,” says the 70-year-old collector and owner of Hamilton, Ontario-based Blue Sky Glass Works, a custom glass shop that makes everything from artistic sand-blasted shower doors and railings to plaques and table tops.
Norm was pretty much born into collecting. His mother used to take him to a local auction house as a kid and have him sit up in the rafters to see who was bidding against her. “I got the bug from her,” he says. The first piece he ever bought himself was an original Browning lamp base. (W.C Browning worked with Tiffany Studios.) Norm was 13 years old at the time. When he was 16 he bought a 1920s Wildfire Chocolate Bar sign by the Patterson Candy Co. out of Toronto and that was that. He was hooked. In the ensuing decades he put together an impressive and eclectic collection.
Now, part of that life-long collection will be sold at Miller & Miller’s December 6, 2025 Petroliana & Historic Advertising auction.
Highlights from the Norm West Collection, coming to Miller & Miller on December 6. Register now to be notified when the sale goes live.
Norm is a man full of stories, many of which involve his collecting. One of his favourites dates back to his teenage years and a farm auction in Simcoe, Ontario. He recalls the auctioneer holding up a feedbag full of McColl-Frontenac Red Indian Motor Oil Quart cans and trying to get someone to bid $1 for the entire bag. Norm offered the winning bid of 75 cents. The bag contained 11 cans, as he remembers it. Then another bag full of cans came out and he bought it too. At that point, an old-timer tapped him on the shoulder and said, “sonny, you realize those cans are empty, right?”. Over the years, Norm gave most of them away, keeping just a few for himself. Today those same Red Indian cans routinely fetch $500 each in top condition.
Over the years, Norm developed an interest in motorcycles and motorcycle collectibles, including toys. He got his first motorcycle on his parents’ farm at age eight. He started racing them at 13. By age 20, he was racing motorcycles in the U.S, Cuba, Spain and Morocco. “I was buying things all over the world.” On one of those occasions he used his mortgage money to buy a $320 American half-gallon Indian motorcycle oil can. A bit risky, but somehow he still managed to make the mortgage payment anyway.
More highlights from the Norm West Collection, coming to Miller & Miller on December 6. Register now to be notified when the sale goes live.
He recalls an older, more experienced collector who once advised him “If you see something you’ve never seen before you should buy it.” He listened – not that he needed much encouragement.
One very unusual thing he managed to buy was an old coin-operated perfume dispenser from 1902 in the form of a bull’s head, which purportedly came from the Royal York Hotel in Toronto after a renovation. He took it home and used it to hang up his keys. “It’s just so cool,” he says. The dispenser turns out to be one of the holy grails of coin-operated collectibles. It was made by Worth & Martin, Toronto for the perfume manufacturer Sovereign Mfg. Co. Limited. When you insert a penny and ‘grab the bull by the horns’ it dispenses the product. Miller & Miller sold one example in 2021 for $5,000CAD, but it was stripped of its prized patina. This one has an undisturbed surface and is expected to bring $6,000 to $9,000CAD.
Worth-Martin Coin-Operated Bull's Head Perfume Dispenser - Est. $6,000/9,000.
Since Norm has been collecting for over half a century, he’s seen it all and bought things every which way: at farm auctions, auction houses, antique and collectible shows, online and directly from previous owners – including from Mike Wolfe, the creator and star of the TV hit show American Pickers.
Norm is still working at his glass business, Bluesky Glass Works, which he founded in 1976, and he’s still collecting, despite consigning a good portion of his collection to Miller & Miller Auctions. Why is he selling? Because he’s run out of room and wants the space so he can keep going.
“It doesn’t stop,” he admits. “Even if I pay too much for something, so what? I still get to look at it every day.” And bonus, since there are no mortgage payments anymore.
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
SALE INFORMATION:
Petroliana & Historic Advertising | The Norm West Collection
December 6, 2025. 9am EST
A Miller & Miller Online Webcast Auction
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