WHAT A FIND! OR IS IT?

You are looking at what appears to be a CD 631, a rather plain glass insulator known as the “Unembossed Bright’s Patent”, which dates from the early 1860’s. Some of you will recognize this threadless style from a similar photo and drawing in Glass Insulators from Outside North America, Second Revision or you may remember having seen it in W. Keith Neal’s book Searching for Railway Telegraph Insulators. CD 631 was patented by Mr. C. T. Bright of England and it is extremely rare with only two examples known to have survived, one in the British Telecom Museum of London and the other in the late Mr. Neal’s collection in Guernsey, Channel Islands. During a 1989 visit to Keith’s home, the CD 631 was one of many that I was privileged to hold in my hand, photograph and measure by shadow profile. I remember the olive green color of the CD 631, the metal pin on which it was mounted, and the many nibbles on the base rim of the skirt and extended petticoat, which gave testimony to its many years in service on the telegraph line. It seemed like a ghost out of the past. Needless to say, many collectors of foreign glass would be happy to find one of these! Mr. Neal’s entire collection has now been taken over by his daughter.

It just so happens that I have recently acquired a third specimen of CD 631 and the photos you see were taken in my back yard a few days before this article was written. The glass color is dark emerald green and the piece is in absolutely flawless condition. Indeed a beautiful piece of glass! But should you feel a twinge of envy, read on. I am not the happy camper you would expect me to be upon acquiring such a jewel. I write about this insulator not because I am so fortunate to have it but because it is not authentic and I want you to be aware of this should more of them find their way into the market. This insulator is a 1995 Reproduction! I am concerned about the growing number of fakes, unmarked reproductions and color altered insulators that are infiltrating our hobby. So where did this CD 631 repro come from? What’s the scoop?

A collector friend of mine in England, who for many years has scoured the country looking for an authentic CD 631 without success (knowing full well he will probably never find one), came up with what he thought was a perfect solution. Using his engineering skills, he made a perfect scale drawing of the piece and submitted it to a mold maker. The mold cost him the equivalent of $2,000 U.S. Next he found a local glass factory that was willing to produce a few of the insulators, though this sort of thing was not part of their normal production line. My friend thought they would be more attractive in dark emerald green rather than the dull olive green of the authentic CD 631! He had told me in advance of his plans to produce them but I warned him that they should be permanently marked in some way so they would not be mistaken for the real thing. He listened politely, but he didn’t seem to feel it was all that important and besides, the mold had already been made and he wasn’t too keen about changing it. The next thing I knew he had 400 of these beautiful insulators in his garage - and not a one was marked in any way. He really didn’t need that many, but I imagine the glass company set that as a minimum before they would agree to do it at all. What really makes me feel bad is that I’ve known him for years and he is a good person. He is not an NIA member nor does he subscribe to Crown Jewels of the Wire magazine, but he’s a dedicated insulator collector, he’s highly intelligent and holds a responsible job. I am confident that he would not willfully do anything to hurt anyone. But since he is “out of the loop”, he sees no harm in what he has done and doesn’t understand our concern. Several times in the past I have sold porcelain insulators for him, made by Allied Insulators in Stoke-on-Trent, England. No problem. Then in June of this year he sent me a sample of the CD 631 repro and rightfully assumed that I would market them as I had done previously. However, this is a completely different situation and I had to refuse. He is miffed and he is hurt. He asks “Is something better than nothing or nothing better than something?” In this case the answer is obvious. I hated to let him down, but I would be letting down a whole lot of other folks in the hobby if I were to turn loose a bunch of unmarked replicas of such a rare insulator, no matter how beautiful they are or how reasonable the price might be. Even so, a few may eventually make their way across the ocean through someone who is unaware that they are reproductions.

With only a few insulator collectors in England, the hobby is not really organized there. Individuals communicate but there is no local market for British insulators, thus no insulator shows. While it cost him a lot of money to have the repros made, he says he is not trying to make big money nor is he running some clandestine operation by passing off reproduction insulators as original pieces. He feels that because they have been documented in his own paperwork and in the production records of the factory, it is adequate proof of their origin. But he is there and we are here and that offers little protection for our collectors, even if they were to be given verbal or written information at the time of purchase. Words aren’t always remembered, paper has a way of disappearing, and I have yet to be impressed with records of insulator production, if any, kept by European insulator manufacturers! What is there to protect the next generation owner of the insulator? Engraving “1995 Repro” on the base rim would help, but even that can be buffed off. We may not be able to stop this sort of thing from being made, but we can at least educate our collectors and try to keep these pieces away from our shows. Before writing this article, I talked with Mike Guthrie, author of Fake, Altered and Repaired Insulators and Dwayne Anthony, who has done extensive testing with the different types of radiation sometimes used to enhance and/or change the original colors of glass insulators. They both agreed that collectors should be made aware of the situation. We are all indebted to Mike and Dwayne for helping us avoid some of the potholes along the road to good collecting. If you attended the NIA National in Marlborough, Massachusetts July 14-16, perhaps you were able to see the CD 631 Repro at my table or at the NIA Friday night business meeting. Readers, please feel free to send your comments, pro or con.

INSULATORS FROM MOROCCO

In April of this year my brother-in-law, Morris Albers and his wife Vivian took a two week tour through Morocco. It was part of a continuing education program called “Studies on Tour”, sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin. I remember seeing many French and Spanish insulators on the lines when I was there back in 1977, so I asked them to bring me any they could find. (Morocco, independent since 1956, includes within its borders the former protectorates of French Morocco and Spanish Morocco.) We met their plane in Houston at the end of the trip and they were full of stories, including how their tour guide had managed to find four insulators for them. Two were of glass, one was a white porcelain rack spool, and the other a tiny black composition insulator. I was delighted! The two glass pieces are the most interesting and are shown below. The tall one is an unembossed CD 543 in rich yellow green. The crown is a bit wider than those I’ve seen before, and while it’s not enough to warrant a new CD number, it’s definitely a keeper. The tour guide found this piece for Morris and Vivian in the city of Marrakesh. It is of French origin and was designed for use on a power line. A bit of cement remains in the pin hole, indicating that the insulator was mounted on a metal pin.

The other glass insulator was a real surprise to me. It’s a clear CD155 WHITALL TATUM No. 1 made in the U.S.A. This was retrieved in the city of Ouarzazate (pronounced War-za-zaht) and it also has traces of cement in the pin hole, plus quite a bit of reddish (desert?) sand between the petticoat and skirt. But what in the world was this insulator doing in Morocco? N.R. “Woody” Woodward had a possible answer. The embossing on the rear skirt indicates that the piece was of 1943 production, right at the time of World War II. Morocco was part of the African theater, so it is likely that these insulators were brought over by the U.S. Army Signal Corp for use on their military lines. When the war ended, the insulators would no longer have been needed and were left behind. A utility company in the area probably confiscated them for local use by cementing them onto metal pins. Of course we have no proof of this, but it makes a good story and it makes sense! The white porcelain rack spool and the black composition insulator (not shown) also came from Ouarzazate. Neither is marked, but we were told the little black one was used on a telephone line. Many thanks to Morris and Vivian for bringing the insulators back and to Woody for his helpful comments regarding the CD 155.