c. 1910s to 1920s P. T. Legaré Portland Sleigh

 This Portland sleigh was made for P. T. Legaré, Limited, of Quebec City, Quebec. P. T. Legaré was one of Canada's first department store chains. At its height, the company had more than fifty stores and hundreds of local agencies throughout Quebec, as well as parts of Ontario and New Brunswick.
 Founded by Pierre Théophile Legaré, the company's roots go back into the 19th century. Legaré, born in Charlesbourg, Quebec, in 1851, established a firm to build farm implements with his father in the late 1860s. He may have taken over this firm in 1877. Drawing on his early experiences in the agriculture business, Legaré became an agent for the G. M. Cossitt & Brother Company of Brockville, Ontario; and then, at some point in the 1880s, he established his own carriage company.
 After a fire destroyed his carriage company in 1889, Legaré teamed up with Robert Johnston Latimer to form Latimer & Legaré in 1890, building and selling plows, carriages, and other farm machinery. They continued in business together until 1895 or 1896 when Legaré bought Latimer out, changing the companies name to P. T. Legaré. In 1903, Legaré invited two very bright employees, Pierre-Wilfrid and Joseph-Herman Fortier, to join him as partners. With their input and managerial skills, Legaré's company grew considerably. In 1910, he reorganized and renamed the company, P. T. Legaré, Limited, valuing it at $100,000. By 1920, the company was valued at more than $1,000,000.
 The company did not only sell sleighs, carriages, and agricultural implements; it also sold furniture, refrigerators, wood stoves, washing machines, and musical instruments. Legaré even expanded into automobiles, founding the Legaré Automobile and Supply Company, Limited. Advertising in widely-circulating newspapers and in its own catalogues, the company's growth continued into the 1920s. By the time of Legaré's death in 1926, the company had more than 50 stores and over 1,000 local agencies. The company's success, however, would not last. The Fortier brothers became involved in fraud, and their dealings, combined with the economic downturn of the Great Depression, led to the company's bankruptcy in 1935.

 An alternative to using a buggy or wagon for travel, the sleigh was ideal for snowy or icy conditions when horses would have difficulty pulling a wheeled vehicle. This sleigh may have been used for enjoyment, although it also may have been used for emergency travel, or for running errands during the cold and snowy winter months. The flat driver's seat on this sleigh can be set down so that the driver could sit in the more comfortable rear seat. If you look closely, you can see the sleigh whip that a driver might have used with this sleigh; it is setting inside the whip socket on the front right side of the sleigh. This sleigh was reportedly restored by Jim Eno of Lincoln, Nebraska, and detailed by Sarah Eno in 1988.

Notes

A very informative history of Legaré's life and his company written by Antonio Lechasseur can be accessed here.
For an interesting article on P. T. Legaré and its advertising, visit the Canadian Museum of History's page here.
You can see the cover of a catalogue for sleighs printed by P. T. Legaré on the Canadian Museum of History's site here. You will need to scroll down to the heading, "Catalogue Collections." The site says that P. T. Legaré made its own sleighs.