I had the caption for this "all laid out" (posted) several days ago and when I went to replace only the picture, my previous detailed description about how I found this wonderful insulator was totally "killed". I had a picture of our cat "Snookie" standing by for a temporary image until when I got to finally photographing this piece with the quality it deserves. So, I'm going to do some of this all over.

I do not have the time right now to repeat my prior long dissertation. Basically, I found this insulator among numerous other early telegraph types in a barn about 30 miles from the Brimfield flea market on Thursday, July 7th. The seller had a basket full of insulators at his booth upon our arriving late that day. Nothing spectacular, but I asked him if he had any more. He said "yes" and that I was welcome to go through the barrel of them in the barn (with the property) he recently bought. Everything was a buck a pop. It was dark when I arrived and had a mediocre flashlight. Many insulators were damaged (nothing rare) but I pulled about 40 complete ones from the barrel including this bullet (I forget its CD number). These insulators were in there from the 1940s and 50s judging from the decayed newspapers that surrounded them (along with decayed hay, long-dead little critters and other natural wrappings). Almost the insulators in one-piece all had bad iron wire staining on them so it was difficult to discern actual colors especially in "light" of my dimming Eveready hand-light. At first I thought this insulator was teal with all of the iron oxidation/poor lighting but it later turned out to be cobalt blue! It is in VNM condition and is among several other nice pieces (but not as elusive, I think!) that I got. In addition, I left the iron wire on some. I'm going to photograph these as time permits and post within this section. FYI: this piece is NOT for sale. I am in the process of selling some of my lesser finds. This cobalt has been scoured diligently with ScotchBrite and cleanser and was set into an oxalic bath for a few days, so unless they were reproducing bullets in color 50-60 years ago, I am rather convinced this is a real McCoy. Does anyone know how many of these exist in this color? I know the purple ones are about but what about the cobalt blue version? Oh yes, it is unmarked and was made in a two-piece mold except for a half-dollar-sized circle near its crown (an early three-part mold?). A couple more pix of this piece will follow. Again, not for sale but e-mail questions are welcome. I will post the others but only with the caption description done with the photo uploading.

Tracey Beckham