Woody Takes A Second Look At Two Close Cousins

Remember this photo? It was published in the October '97 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire. Upon taking a second look at the insulator on the right, Woody has reclassified it as a CD 645, rather than a variation of CD 643. Read on and you will see how this came to be.

CD 643 variations

As you may remember, in the Spring of 1990 Carol McDougald and I took a trip to Europe with the intention of doing some research on insulators and manufacturers "from outside North America". We arrived in Amsterdam and spent a couple of days in the city of Utrecht with Carol's friends, Ans and Herman Galesloot. Ans is quite an insulator collector and with the help of her husband and two sons she has found many good examples while traveling through France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, etc. One of the most unique insulators on her shelf was a chubby gingerbread boy in light green with no inner skirt and no embossing.

Carol and I made several shadow profiles of the pieces that were new to us but ran out of time before we could draw that fat little gingerbread boy. Having watched us go through the procedure, we felt Ans and Herman could measure and draw that last one if we left some written instructions. Sure enough, an envelope with the shadow profile and measurements arrived in the mail soon after we returned to the States. I sent the information to Jack Todd, who at that time was making all the inked scale drawings of foreign insulators. Ans's measurements had been given in centimeters and when converted to inches, the insulator had a base diameter of 3" and measured 4-5/8" in height. Then, sight unseen, but with the completed drawing in his hands, Woody classified this piece as CD 645. Until recently we thought it was the only one in existence. Not so - read on.

For the last couple of years, collectors Bernie Warren and Jim Bergman have been making very productive trips to France and have brought back several examples of CD 645, either with the ISOREX trademark or no embossing at all. Going by the scale drawing in Glass Insulators from Outside North America they quickly discovered that their CD 645's were a quarter of an inch shorter than the one belonging to Ans. That threw a monkey wrench into the situation! The only thing we can figure is that the light source may have been too close to the insulator causing the shadow to grow in height or there may have been some glitch in converting centimeters to inches! I have written to her asking if she will measure the actual specimen one more time and as soon as I have an answer back I will bring you up to date. I'm willing to bet that Ans' insulator is the same height as the other CD 645's found by Bernie and Jim. If that's so, a corrected scale drawing of this style will be made.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

During the past four years that my friend and yours, Marco Schmitz LeHanne of Krefeld, Germany has been attending the National shows here in the States, he has never come empty handed. Upon arrival his suitcase is impossibly heavy with insulators for special insulator buddies and you wonder what is holding it together! This year was no exception. Following are photos of some treasures he found for me.

CD 396.2

Close-up of SEDIVER embossing

Until now all the examples I had seen of CD 396.2 were unembossed except for a tiny mold number on the top shell. On this particular one you can see SEDIVER embossed in large letters across the top of the crown, and it is very impressive. Until last summer I was unaware of any CD 396.2's with this embossing. I suspect they are of a more recent production than the unembossed varieties.

"The eyes have it"!

In the December '96 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire, I included a photo of a brown plastic insulator similar in style to the ones shown here. I stuck plastic eyes in the two holes and called it the "Extra-Terrestrial". It was made by a company called WEMA, a subsidiary of the Driescher Corporation in Germany and was the strangest insulator I had ever seen! Marco managed to find three porcelain examples of this type made by Rosenthal of Germany and these are shown above. Unfortunately, the middle one can't turn around because it is damaged on the back side. The Rosenthal trademark appears on the top skirt of each insulator, incused on the shortest one to the left and stamped with underglaze ink on the other two. They range in height from 5-7/8" to 7-1/8". Truly unique pieces and a great addition to any collection of foreign porcelain. 

Another neat power insulator from Germany.

This attractive white porcelain is made in one piece and was produced by KRONACHER PORSELLANFABRICK located in Bavaria, Germany. The trademark of the company is incused on the crown. The height of the insulator is 4-1/2" and the diameter of the top shell is 6-7/8". I know Marco was happy to get this one out of his suitcase and I was happy to have it!

"German wire holders"

These porcelain objects you see here are called "leading in" wire holders and are used to lead electrical wires into buildings while keeping the moisture out. Their size and the number of holes depends on the thickness of the wires and how many are to be guided into the building. They make great go-withs for any porcelain collection and can do double duty as holders for other things on your desk.

A rooftop pole cover made of green porcelain.

Several Crown Jewels of the Wire issues back I published an article on rooftop pole covers in Europe, showing several styles made of different materials. I had seen several of these in either white or brown porcelain but never one in green, so Marco set about finding one for me and brought it to the Chicago National last July. Unfortunately the outer shell was broken in transit from Germany. Since then I have glued the pieces back together and it displays okay from the front side, especially when the two parts are screwed together as one unit. Here again these make great go-withs and over the years I have accumulated several different styles and sizes made by German manufacturers. Thanks for thinking of your friends, Marco. You have endeared yourself to many collectors.