The gods of porcelain looked favorably on me at this years Springfield show... just after the show opened, I noticed an odd looking white porcelain piece with a smashed inner skirt sitting tucked under a display sales shelf at the show ...feeling curious, I picked it up and it was a U-945 Mershon missing it's inner skirt for $150... I thought WOW I have always wanted one of these but where would I ever find an inner skirt for one??? so I set it back down and walked onwards... about an hour later I was hanging out with fellow mud collector Jeff Hogan at his sales table and he pulls out... OMG... ! a U-945 with it's OUTER skirt smashed off but the long tube inner skirt intact and unbroken ... It took a moment of thinking and suddenly I said to Jeff hold this for me! ... I ran back to the table with the Mershon top for $150 and the cash flew out of my wallet so fast it was on fire.... I walked away with the top.... Now back to Jeff's table ... once again a nominal amount of cash lept from my wallet....and WALA... I have a complete Mershon!! Fast forward ten days and I am at Paul Greaves house in California with the diamond grinding tools doing a skirt transplant repair....[id=325993262] So here is my $250 porcelain Mershon... ! :-) ! As it turns out I can even repair the crown chips with carefully carved pieces of the droner insulators crown .The porcelain Mershon remains one of the porcelain collectors most prized classic pieces Now my 20 year wait to get one is finally over! My understanding is these were all produced in 1899 and were used on only one or two lines, one in Quebec and the other in far upstate New York . They had a pretty short life and rather small distribution which accounts for there rarity. From all Indications, the U-945 was soon superseded by the U-944, another Mershon design which tho is also rare . The U-944[id=305849029] was more widely used and many more were sold. The later U-944 " Mershon" has been found in Quebec, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, northern California and maybe other places as well.