MAJORCA REVISITED

When Carol McDougald and I were in Majorca in May of 1990, we did little else but look for the rare and elusive CD 680, a small unmarked T-bar in straw or red amber glass that we believe can be found only on this Spanish island. We were successful in finding 4 of the ambers and 6 in straw, all of which quickly went into collections. But even at that time we were told that these are very old, they are not being used any longer and the chances of finding any were pretty slim. Those that we did get were retrieved from the dumpsters at the main electric company called GESA, for Gas y Electicidad S.A. 

Majorca is such a beautiful place and it seemed almost sinful not to see more of it than we had allowed time for, so this past Spring, my husband Bill and I spent from May 13-29 enjoying all the wonderful scenery, beaches, mountains, castles, historic old buildings, forts, castles, leather and glass factories, caves, the blue Mediterranean, windmills, Palma Cathedral (construction begun in the 1200 's), the monastery in Valldemosa where Chopin composed some of his famous sonatas while spending the winter there with his companion, George Sand. Then there was Petra, the birthplace of Friar Juniper Serra, who was responsible for establishing several missions in California, which eventually became cities -- San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, etc. We had a good time! But we also wanted to see if we could find any more of the little glass T-bars. Carol and I had seen a few in 1990, high up on the fronts of buildings where they were still cemented to the walls, but without wires. Our main problem then had been that there was no way for us to get them down.

As Bill and I began to walk the streets of the small towns, we found all new installations and no more T-bars! We covered a lot of ground, thinking surely there must be a few left, but these were just not anywhere in sight. There seems to have been a real clean up effort on the island, which, as I look back, had already begun when Carol and I were there before. Perhaps in anticipation of the many tourists who would be coming over either before or after the Summer Olympics in Barcelona during July and August? We did spot a couple, but when we went to stand below them, we could see that they were completely split in two or were broken and left to dangle by the arms from a disconnected wire. Finally, a couple of days before we were to leave the island, we saw one on a narrow street and were so excited we refused to leave the spot until we found someone to take it down for us. Eventually, with the help of a lady at a nearby bank who spoke a little English, and a man with an extension ladder who was willing to take it down for us (for a price), we were able to get one red amber CD 680. It had appeared mint from the ground, but when it was put into Bill's hands, he saw that it had quite a bit of damage. But even that didn't bother us, because it had been a thrilling experience just the same and this little insulator was pretty special. It is now a very treasured souvenir of our trip and safely displayed in a lighted cabinet behind glass. In addition, we did, by some miracle, find one vvnm specimen in straw at GESA' S dump, which, by prior arrangement, went into a collection here in the States. These CD 680's are truly very rare!

CD 680 T -Bars from Majorca in straw and in red amber

But woe were able to bring back several other styles of glass and porcelain insulators. In fact, we had 200 lbs. of baggage when we were weighed in at the airport in Palma, headed for home. Why we weren't charged overweight, we'll never know. The photos show the different varieties that we found during our stay in Majorca. All of the glass insulators used on the island are made by ESPERANZA S.A. (E. S .A. ), a company that is located in the city of Marquina, Vizcaya, near the northern border of Spain, and it certainly appears that there is no competition from any other glass manufacturer. We were told the taller porcelains (spooks) were made in Barcelona, but since they are not marked, they cannot be attributed to any certain manufacturer.

U-1649 N N
(product of PORCELANAS GIRALT, Madrid) (variations)

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