Pictured here is the only known example to date of a CD 134, Patent – DEC. 19, 1871 [040] in Purple.

This insulator was discovered in a now long-gone antique shop in Washington state back in 97 or 98. I purchased two insulators that day. The first being a CD 102 Diamond [050] in Royal Purple and the other one being the purple CD 134. I had no trouble locating the Diamond in the Price Guide. But when I attempted to locate the Purple CD 134 under the [040] listing there was no such color listed. Frustrated, I began contacting other collectors whom I knew and asked them if they had ever seen or heard of anyone ever finding or owning a Patent CD 134 [040] in Purple. The answer was no. With the internet relatively new at that time for insulator information (at least for me) proved to be of no help either. I then reached out to the insulator Price Guide authors at that time John and Carol McDougald. After sharing my discovery story with Carol, she suggested we get together. We were planning on traveling to Illinois for the Christmas holidays so we made arrangements to meet with then at their home in St. Charles, IL. After arriving and marveling over their top shelf collection, we then gathered to unbox the insulator that we had brought with us. Upon opening the box, it became immediately apparent that this insulator was the real deal and was going to earn its place and rank in the next forthcoming edition of the Insulator Price Guide. After much discussion, picture taking, marveling over its condition and Purple color, we were then treated to seeing one of two known examples at that time of the same CD only in Orange Amber. Oh my... More pictures and more excitement over the two new colored CD 134s side by side. A few months later the two insulators were introduced to the insulator collecting world in the March 1999 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire which also happened to be the magazines 30th anniversary month. If you are interested, in reading the full story of the Purple CD 134s discovery along with information researched by Carol McDougald pertaining to Double Patent type insulators check out the March 1999 issue of Crown Jewels. Happy December 19th.

http://www.cjow.com/archive/article.php?month=3&a=03The%20Find%20of%20a%20Lifetime.htm&year=1999