> Hello everyone. I have about 20 of these
> Railroad telegraph pole insulators and can
> find about 100 or so if i tried. Where I
> live the Katy Railroad went through in the
> 1860s and these green/blue glass insulators
> are over 115 years old each................
> suggestions and advice is greatly
> appreciated in advance. Thanks TJ Wass

TJ,

IMHO: You need to check the value of them before you modify. Most of those are fairly common and not worth too much; so modify away. Some, however are quite rare and valuable; the odd one could be worth 200 of the common ones. You don't want to find that out right after you turn it into a paperweight, candleholder, or whatever. Some do end up in dusty boxes (mostly the common ones), but the good collectors get the wood screw mounts and display them all mounted on nice boards, labeled and all. Those are the guys who will happily pay real well for the rare one they don't have. I think it's great to find cool uses for antiques, but one should always think twice before seriously altering, modifying, in any way. Just refinishing the old cruddy varnish off something can sometimes decrease the value by a huge amount. Probably not the case with glass insulators, but worth doing your homework on. The price of the rare ones will shock you. They do make nice paperweights, the bigger ones especially. At least with the internet, research is 1,000 times easier than it used to be.(And a million times faster.)
Have fun with them, Dave Horn

PS: I don't know if you're actually getting them off the old poles, if so sometimes the original wood screw mounts can add to the value. And some collectors want the old original mounts for all the rest of their glass, which usually out lives the posts. A 100 yr old mount in usable shape is always preferable to a reproduction. In dry climates they can survive amazingly well.


Too Good To Be True? No, You Can Have A Gold Mine To!!!!