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Posted 3 years ago
imacky
(1 item)
This is an unusual gray-area insulator: it's not quite "factory" but it's also not "fake". It was made in 1972 at the Kerr plant by factory employees on factory equipment with the blessing of the company, but it's not a production insulator. The story is that the employees had intended to produce a pure cobalt insulator, but oops, they forgot to turn on the stirrer! However, Kerr had previously produced cobalt splotch commemorative Mason jars in 1968, so the splotches may have have been by design.
Richard Wentzel, Millville glass expert, says "The cobalt was hand introduced into the feeder. It was crushed cobalt glass. The mechanism which would have stirred it properly into the glass stream did not get turned on, so instead of a solid cobalt colored CD 155, you got just a splotch" (where the little pieces of frit moved in the glass while the glob was processed into an insulator).
The color chips looks like concentrated frit to me instead of pieces of cobalt cullet: they are black, and leave rich cobalt streaks in their wake. If they were pieces of cobalt glass, they would be cobalt colored, not opaque black.
It is believed that from 100 to 150 were made. They are very popular today and sell in the $750 to $1,000 area. When first made, they were brought to an insulator show and offered for $5 but there was little interest at the time.
While cobalt is always an attractive color and they would have been welcome in pure cobalt, I find the streaky version ever better: each one is unique! And talk about contrast!
You can read more about this piece in "History of the CD 155 KERR DP1 Cobalt Splotch" here: <http://www.insulators.info/wiki/History_of_the_CD_155_KERR_DP1_Cobalt_Splotch>
InsulatorsInsulators were originally designed to keep the wires linking telegraphs an…
Anybody who wants to experience the visual beauty of glass insulators and learn more about them should visit Ian's website, Glassian, and also read the Collectors Weekly interview with him. You can get to both via this page: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/hall-of-fame/view/glassian
Its great! I worked at the Kerr Glass plant a little before 72 in Plainfield Il. Thanks for sharing
Kaileys-- I can't believe the story is just as they say. I *have* heard about collectors who, for a lark, put some unusual piece of glass up on a pole where they know some other collector will be looking-- for example a clear dirt-common Hemi-42, but stained bright red.
The cobalt splotches were made for collectors, and originally brought to a show for sale. They're not going to accidentally end up in a carton of production clear ones somehow.
Noope, can't believe it. Maybe someone put it up there knowing another collector was working the line, just to mess with him (assuming there's even a grain of truth to the story).