(reprinted from the NIA's "Drip Points")

The estate of a pioneer insulator publisher is being sold at Auction this spring and summer. Edward Pickett helped Jim Hill author some of the hobby's first price guides, starting around 1967 and continuing into the early 1970's.

The books, "An Insulator Book for Collectors" and "An Insulator Book for Advanced Collectors" were crudely done by today's standards. Hill drew sketches of the insulators that didn't always match the actual designs, or embossing locations, of the insulators. Pickett helped to advance finance the publication of the price guides, plus provided insulators for Hill to sketch.

Last fall, Ed Pickett died in a freak accident while moving one of the 16-hundred antique automobiles he owned on his 250 acre ranch near Canyonville, Oregon. The first of three scheduled auctions of Pickett's vast accumulations occurred May 9th. Almost 300 people signed up as bidders for the "collectibles" portion of the estate. Offered for sale were everything from antique bottles to Jim Beam bottles to swords, lanterns, Nazi collectibles, and thousands upon thousand of objects the 69-year-old Pickett had accumulated over the years. And insulators, of course.

Bill Ostrander accompanied my wife and I to the auction. We arrived well ahead of time to preview what was available. We found over 30 boxes of insulators. While there was nothing fantastic, there were enough good items to encourage us to stay and bid. Stay is what we did. Hours and hours passed while Texaco collectibles were auctioned, and antique toys, and display cabinets, and old bicycles, and on and on and on.

During the long wait we got involved in a cat-and-mouse game with another bidder. He kept moving some of the better insulators into a box and the covering them up with common insulators. When the man wasn't looking, Bill would move the better insulators back into their original boxes. When the man discovered they'd been moved, he'd move things again. And Bill would wait and move them back. This was repeated all day long.

Finally around 4:30 in the afternoon the auctioneer got around to the insulators. We expected the boxes to be sold in groups of three or four at a time. To our surprise, he auctioned 18 boxes off as a single lot. I stood beside the man who'd been hiding the insulators and the bidding took off. I expected to have to pay into the many hundreds of dollars for the lot, and was completely floored when we won the bid at a mere $200. About a half-hour later the auctioneer sold the remaining 13 boxes. The same thing happened. The other bidder dropped out right away and we got the bid for $75.

Now I had a real problem. Only one-quarter of the insulators were worth hauling home; and I didn't have room in the car for the rest. Now how do you instantly get rid of hundreds upon hundreds of common insulators?

Bill scouted around for a dumpster to put them in; I began offering insulators free of charge to other bidders; and my wife, Linda, put a "free" sign on the table full of leftovers.

By the time Bill returned minutes later, the last of the freebies was being hauled off by a dozen or so grateful bidders who couldn't believe their good fortune at getting something for nothing. Maybe our act of desperation will start someone new in the hobby.

So what was worth hauling home?

We got a mint CD 178 California Santa Ana in amethyst, another mint CD 178 California Santa Ana in sage green, a mint CD 260 California in sage green, a bashed CD 260 California in amethyst, a number of emerald green McLaughlin's in various CD's including a CD 154, a mint CD 106.3 Duquense in cornflower blue, a green colored CD 121 pleated skirt, a mint CD 121 Canada in royal purple with a huge underpour.

There were lots more Californias in a variety of CD's and colors, mint CD 145 Postals in amethyst and sage green, an early Hemingray CD 124 in light green, some Denver produced insulators in various CD's and colors including amethyst, a number of purple CD 154 Whitall Tatum's, and much more. Perhaps the scarcest insulator was a CD 102 Star with wedge drip points.

	Note wedge shaped drip points on base of this high-domed CD 102 Star pony.

The badly damaged CD 260 amethyst California helmet shown above has long been rumored to be for sale in one of the numerous antique shops in Canyonville, Oregon. Many collectors have looked for it in vain. Now we know the rumor was true.

It was a long day at the auction. But patience paid off. I've said it before and it is certainly true. Estate auctions can be excellent sources for insulators. Happy hunting.

Howard Banks 
(reprinted from the NIA's "Drip Points")