Estate sale finds

Greetings again

I've just hit an estate sale and then well an antique store and this is what i've come up with. Along with a few questions for some of my finds.




The above insulator had a strange dark color that i tried washing with some water to verify if it was part of the original color and so far it seems it is. Any ideas as to why its that color would be nice and if its special in any way because of that. it is also embossed with just a B




Incuse pinco. Im not sure what year this was made and if five dollars was a good deal or not.




incuse westinghouse electric corp. logo (1)?Help with determing the possible year and what the incuse 04 is would be awesome




Incuse locke 44. Im not sure what year this may be from and if $5 was a good deal.






this one has two small chips on the bottom. any indication to year would be nice




this one has a chip sadly and im not sure how much that detracts from the collectibility of it.

Hope this post wasn't too long!

Okay i had done some research and from the logos on the locke 44 and westinghouse 04 insulators i believe they may be from 1921 since it seems to me that these were the first types of labels incused.

I don't want to be the bearer of sad tidings,,,,,, so I won't.

no please. i would rather know.

They are all virtually worthless due to being common and damaged. I would send you such insulators, perhaps even exact duplicates, for nothing but the cost of postage but they are not worth the cost of postage.

The B Cd 145 beehive is the common color with train diesal smoke soot. It dates from the first quarter of the 20th century. In order to clean it it would have to soak in oxalic acid awhile.

The Pinco is very common in an undesireable color, dates fron 1930 - 60

The Westighouse & Locke again very common with little to no collector interest, same vintage as the Pinco.

The Hemingray 21, vintage 1930 - 50, in that color would be worth maybe $5 - 10 but it has no real value because of the damage.

BTW, your picture lighting makes it very difficult to evaluate items if color is a strong influeance which with insulators it is. The colors shown on my monitor all come to yellow or gold. That Hemingray - 21 looks green on my monitor and they don't come in green as far as I have ever seen.

Better luck next time.

ORIGINAL: botlguy

They are all virtually worthless due to being common and damaged. I would send you such insulators, perhaps even exact duplicates, for nothing but the cost of postage but they are not worth the cost of postage.

The B Cd 145 beehive is the common color with train diesal smoke soot. It dates from the first quarter of the 20th century. In order to clean it it would have to soak in oxalic acid awhile.

The Pinco is very common in an undesireable color, dates fron 1930 - 60

The Westighouse & Locke again very common with little to no collector interest, same vintage as the Pinco.

The Hemingray 21, vintage 1930 - 50, in that color would be worth maybe $5 - 10 but it has no real value because of the damage.

BTW, your picture lighting makes it very difficult to evaluate items if color is a strong influeance which with insulators it is. The colors shown on my monitor all come to yellow or gold. That Hemingray - 21 looks green on my monitor and they don't come in green as far as I have ever seen.

Better luck next time.

Click to expand...

Thank you i was hoping for better news but at least now i know and thats all part of the learning experience. once again thanks.

I agree with Jim. The general rule of thumb is that brown porcelain from a large company (or unmarked) in ordinary styles like signals or cables, is almost never going to have much collector value. Collectors tend to look for unusual glaze colors (blue, yellow, green), or unusual shapes like transpositions, or very old porcelain from before 1910 or so.

Jim's dates are generally right, but since you're interested in date I can refine a few of them a bit -

The Pinco is probably the 1930s. By the mid-late 30s Pinco had begun using an underglaze marking and phased out incuse.

According to the Hemingray specialists, products embossed HEMINGRAY (front) and No. ## (back) are from the 1910-1919 period. So I'd say your beehive dates from around then.

If you're interested in cleaning the sooty crust off the B beehive, here's some more detailed info on cleaning methods:

Cleaning Your Insulators

I know it's kind of tough when you're new to insulators. The prices of 1-5 dollars (or more!) aren't unusual for most antique stores and such, just so you're aware that you'll probably be paying a bit more than what you'd see at an insulator show.

Not sure if you've seen these sites - lots more info available here:

http://www.insulators.info/

and

National Insulator Association

ORIGINAL: BillinMo

I agree with Jim. The general rule of thumb is that brown porcelain from a large company (or unmarked) in ordinary styles like signals or cables, is almost never going to have much collector value. Collectors tend to look for unusual glaze colors (blue, yellow, green), or unusual shapes like transpositions, or very old porcelain from before 1910 or so.

Jim's dates are generally right, but since you're interested in date I can refine a few of them a bit -

The Pinco is probably the 1930s. By the mid-late 30s Pinco had begun using an underglaze marking and phased out incuse.

According to the Hemingray specialists, products embossed HEMINGRAY (front) and No. ## (back) are from the 1910-1919 period. So I'd say your beehive dates from around then.

If you're interested in cleaning the sooty crust off the B beehive, here's some more detailed info on cleaning methods:

Cleaning Your Insulators

I know it's kind of tough when you're new to insulators. The prices of 1-5 dollars (or more!) aren't unusual for most antique stores and such, just so you're aware that you'll probably be paying a bit more than what you'd see at an insulator show.

Not sure if you've seen these sites - lots more info available here:

http://www.insulators.info/

and

National Insulator Association

Click to expand...

Wow thanks for the in depth information there about the ceramics and hemingray. You have no idea how much that little bit helped as well along with botlguy's or jim's reply. Those links shall be a great help as well me being a noob and all, but really i appreciate any help i can get thanks.