Left Coast Lines would like to thank Tom Katonak for providing us with this show report and its associated pictures. Tom regularly writes this report for his club and his little bit of extra effort ensures that Left Coast Lines and Crown Jewels magazine are able to bring the stories of the EIC club to the rest of the hobby. Wouldn't it be great if every club had at least one member who could take an hour or so, after the show, to put together a quick show report? Tom sends his report to LCL and we spend no more than an hour formatting it and sending it on to Linda and Howard for publication. If all of our clubs did this, the magazine would be bustin' with show reports and all would be right with the world! :c) Thanks Tom!

The Enchantment Insulator Club (EIC) joined forces with the New Mexico Historical Bottle Society to hold its 17th Annual Show on September 25th, 2004 in the Chapman Hall of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in NE Albuquerque, New Mexico. The show was an unqualified success. We maxed out the hall with 53 sales tables and absolutely could not have gotten another sales table out on the floor. Dealers were split about 50-50 between insulators and bottles or collectibles. While many of the traditional dealers were in attendance, there were a few new folks as well including Mike Green from Denver, and Dennis Weber from St. Joseph, Missouri. Jack Riesselman of Bozeman, Montana also returned this year since he didn't have a conflict with elk hunting this season. We had dealer representation from CA, AZ, CO, TX, MO, KS, NV and MT - not to mention the NM crowd. The walk-in traffic was perhaps the best we've ever had, thanks in part to a short blurb in the events section of the local newspaper - sometimes it was pretty difficult to maneuver around the hall what with all the people shopping. In addition, we had a number of paid early-bird buyers during the Friday PM setup period. The buyers came from even more states than the dealers did - we had a great representation from around the country!

The exhibits - a hallmark of the EIC shows - were outstanding again this year. This is always one of the high points of the show. There were ten displays covering many aspects of the hobby. Four of the exhibits were insulator related, three were displays of bottles, one was both an insulator and bottle exhibit, and the remaining two fell into the "other" Category. Lynda Katonak walked away with top honors with her display called "Storyteller Insulators". She got both the EIC and the NIA Best of Show awards, and the coveted People's Choice ribbon. Denver collector Mike Green got the EIC 2nd Place award for his awesome exhibit of rare colored insulators entitled "What is Color". First-time exhibitor Joey Wells won the NMHBS most Educational ribbon and the NMHBS 2nd Place award for his fine display of "Henry Krick bottles". Mike Miller, a frequent exhibitor at the EIC shows, won the NMHBS Best of Show award for his outstanding exhibit of "Denver Glass", a display comparing the similarities of bottles and insulators manufactured at the Valvarde Glass Works in Denver. Rick Bentley won the Open Category with his exhibit of Insulator Related Equipment Catalogs while Arthur McConnachie received the Crown Jewels of the Wire award for his exhibit "Stars from One Line". Honorable Mention goes to Jack Newbold of Durango for his spectacular exhibit of old brass implements - what a display!

Mike Gay (R) presents an award to Mike Green for his great color exhibit.

This year's dealers reported great sales - many said this is the best they've ever done at one of the EIC shows. Foreign items, particularly Australian and Ukrainian glass, and North American highly colored pieces moved briskly. Soda bottles, marbles and barbwire moved well during the show. Also this year, we had a large selection of relics, artifacts and tabletop antiques on various dealers' tables. This seemed to be a big draw for walk-through traffic.

The Magnificent Brass Exhibit by Jack Newbold.

Activity pretty well tailed off by 3:30 p.m. and some of the dealers packed up their wares. Those spending the night in Albuquerque were able to attend the annual open house at the Katonak's place in Corrales on Sunday morning. We all enjoyed a picture perfect fall day in New Mexico, a wonderful brunch compliments of Lynda, a house-full of collectors telling the best tales they could muster, and some great trading on the side - you couldn't ask for much more!

Beautiful Bottles!

Arthur McConnachie's exhibit of "B" 145s

Dennis Webber, and Brian Riecker watch as Mike Bliss unwraps a........