25 Years of Collecting

Well it's great to be back. Back where? Back into insulator collecting, of course. From 1969 to 1974 my friend Mike Newcomer and I were young and enthusiastic collectors. We always enjoyed going to insulator shows and scouring the countryside for rare jewels. That's me, Steve Viola, on an updated EC&M pole back sometime in the early 70's.

Since we lived in the San Francisco Bay area and were interested in California and Nevada history, it was natural for us to end up specializing in early western glass. At that time it was much easier to acquire good EC&M and Cal. Elec. Works insulators. Prices were a fraction of what they are today and there seemed to be a lot more of them floating around. Consequently Mike and I were able to obtain many great pieces for our collections. Mike had a nice assortment of colored EC&Ms and I had among other things a cobalt CD 140.5 "BLOB", a 4" tall CD 120 C.E.W., and a VNM to MINT CD 130.2 Seilers Patent! (The Seilers Patent, as it turns out, is the one pictured on page 51 of McDougalds' book.) 

Because we were so young, change in our lives was inevitable and for various reasons we both eventually drifted away from the insulator hobby. Sometime about 1974 we sold off our collections and our careers as insulator collectors came to an end. After years of being out of touch with each other Mike and I met again and we renewed our old friendship. We would occasionally think back to the fun times we had during our insulator collecting days and wondered if insulator collecting was still a functioning and viable hobby. The only insulators that we had seen since 1974 were the common types that can be found in some of the antique stores.

I'm not sure why, but early in 1992 things began to happen that would lead to my return to collecting. I began picking up a few interesting insulators at antique stores and street fairs. Meanwhile I had become unhappy with my hobby at the time which was collecting German militaria. Once a collector always a collector I guess, and I was getting itchy to start collecting something new. 

Then one day I noticed an ad in the newspaper for the San Jose Antique Bottle Collector's Association show at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds. I decided to check it out in case there might be some good insulators there like there used to be in the early 70's. When I entered the building the first thing that I saw was a great display of Californias put up by Glenn Sievert. This was fantastic! Suddenly I was re-experiencing the thrill and anticipation of being at a show where one could find something good lurking on one of the sales tables. Sure enough, before long I had spotted and purchased an aqua EC&M. Wow! I was thrilled. I hadn't owned an EC&M for almost 20 years.

Things got even more interesting when I stopped at a table where a bottle digger was showing off a damaged CD 130.2 Seilers Patent that he had dug up in San Jose. Although this piece was missing all of the skirt from the embossing down, I was delighted to see it. It reminded me of the nice one that I used to have. It had also been dug in San Jose. This piece was not for sale so I moved on to see the rest of the show. 

After a while I ran into Glenn Sievert. Glenn is a long time collector whom I had known during my insulator collecting days, and it was good to see and talk with him again. He filled me in on the hobby as it stands today and I left him with plans to get a new subscription to Crown Jewels of the Wire and to order a set of the new books by John and Carol McDougald. 

On my way out of the building I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of a beautiful cobalt EC&M that another bottle digger had just found and was taking bids on. He already had offers of over a thousand dollars for it. Boy, have prices changed over the years! I remember when they sold for about $250.00. Although this dismayed me, it didn't stop me from making an offer for it myself. I didn't succeed in getting the EC&M, but I definitely left the show with a renewed case of EC&M fever! 

Since that time I've greatly enjoyed attending insulator shows and renewing old friendships with people like Pat and Shirley Patocka, Bill Heitkotter and others that I used to know in the old days. I've also enjoyed the new people that I've met in the last two years. I guess that my new enthusiasm was infectious because my old friend Mike has also returned to collecting. In my conversations with him, I have often lamented the fact that we sold all of our good insulators back in 1974. Considering the higher demand and the higher prices for these things in today's market, it seemed that it would be impossible to duplicate the collections that we used to have. It was the Auburn bottle show this last December that would cause me to reevaluate this impression. Many great insulators had already turned up at the show by Saturday afternoon but I was totally unprepared for what happened next. A man was walking around the show asking about an insulator that he had dug up in Sacramento. He had the embossing written down on a scrap of paper. When he read the name "Seilers Patent" I nearly flipped! I quickly engaged him in a conversation and explained to him that I had one of these many years ago and would dearly love to get another. He promised to return in half an hour with the insulator and show it to me.