NEW FOREIGN INSULATOR STYLES

The insulator show held in Springfield, Ohio was one of the best ones my husband and I have ever attended. The new location was huge and collectors came from all directions to buy, sell or trade their wares. I've never seen so many insulators changing hands and just about every collector or dealer was smiling.

It wasn't long before I had a smile on my face too - a big one! A young collector by the name of Curtis Erickson came over to our sales table with a glass insulator in his hand that he said was from Russia. My eyes got wider and wider as he talked. It was a beautiful piece of glass in a rich Hemingray Blue and there were Russian letters embossed almost all the way around the base of the insulator. I think Curtis liked it as much as I did but we finally agreed on a trade that made us both happy.

Two views of new CD 570.2

I wrapped the insulator up securely and made sure it was never out of my sight for the rest of the weekend! When we returned to our home in Houston I couldn't wait to show it to Woody just to see what he thought about it. The first thing he noticed was that the insulator had been put together with three "mold cheeks" instead of just two mold lines like we have on glass insulators here in America. He was able to make out quite a few Russian letters so I left the insulator with him to see if he could figure out what they meant. He was able to translate the Russian letters to the name "MAGGIE-ETZ", which is either the name of the company that produced the insulator or the name of a certain railroad line. The insulator measures 3-1/2" in height and 2-1/2" across the base. Hopefully I'll be able to find someone who knows the Russian language really well and when I do I'll share the news with our Crown Jewels of the Wire readers.

CD 570 variant.

Two new glass insulators from Ukraine have also been added to my foreign glass collection and they are just beautiful! I am calling the larger one in rich emerald green a CD 570 "variant" because it is nearly identical in profile to a another insulator from Ukraine that has already been given that same CD number. This new one is exactly 3-1/4" tall with a base diameter of 2-3/4".

New CD 568.1

The smaller insulator is only 2-5/8" in height with a base diameter of 2 inches. At this time it has not been assigned a CD number but I expect it will have one soon. This one is a pretty green but not as rich a shade as the CD 570 variant. Neither of these two Ukrainian insulators is embossed.