Southern France - The Region of Provence
by Greg and Allison Burke
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", September 1996, page 39
While driving alongside a rail line in the region of Provence in southern
France, we came upon a lone telegraph pole with lots of glass gingerbread boys.
Walking down the line one hundred feet or so, we found glass all over the
ground. There we collected six large green gingerbread boys (or are they “men”?),
which all were easily removed from their pins. All are in perfect shape.
Count them folks .... they all look like the
CD 642 "men" to your editor.
This picture shows Greg standing near a crossing with four
gingerbread men within reach, all loose on their pins.
"If you find them, they're yours! They're still there."
(You really know how to make a foreign glass collector weep, Greg.)
We found a small dark saddle groove "ISOREX" down a couple hundred
feet from the pole pictured above. And at a large antique show, we bought two
small gingerbread "boys" and the "two groove with flat thing with
2 holes in it" (commonly referred to as a "spook") for 20 francs
($4.00) each.
Gingerbread "man", "spook", small Isorex,
gingerbread "boy".
We were also able to get a porcelain sign. It is double faced with a flange.
The translation is "The Leclanché Battery. Mister Battery At Your
Service". The sign is very colorful, navy blue, black, grey, white, red and
yellow. (You can see this photo in color at http://www.insulators.com)
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