Is This A Fake/Altered Insulator?

[Roy]

Please post here so we can all benefit from the knowledge! If I was still doing insulators I would post before and after.

Will do. Roy

 

[dario]

I’ve got a W.F.G Co. Insulator here, and while talking to a guy about it, he said from the pictures I had sent it didn’t look right. He said that it’s coloration of the glass looked off.

I’m, as many you may of guessed, very worried that I may of bought a altered/fake piece.
**Note: The pictures make the insulator almost black looking. In person the insulator is a very dark shade of purple.**

Now, if it’s fake, which I hope it’s not, but if it is, can y’all explain what I need to look for next time I buy Insulator’s? I’ve read a few things on how to spot them, but I’m still oh so confused. What makes it worse is that I’m relatively new, which has caused me to go in full panic mode.

I’ve also included a picture’s of the insulator in question. One picture is a comparison in color between it and a Hemi - 42 in Hemi Blue.

Any help y’all can give will be very appreciated!

~J.C.
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Many dark purples are fake. This CD 121 DENVER does comes in a BLUE/PURPLE color which this does not seem to match this. The other Denver CD 121, W.G.M. comes in a purple, royal purple, and a black Purple. My guess is it was nuked. Sorry.

 

[Lbrewer42]

Some background: I am the National Insulator Research and Education Chairman. I have dealt with a lot of irradiated insulators and given a seminar concerning it. As part of the NIA research I used a gamma radiation source at Penn State to deliberately alter different insulators to identify what colors to expect from differing insulator manufacturers.
The pictures show what seems to be a fake.
Remembering I am only looking at pictures, the picture that really clinches it for me is what I would term the pinhole shot. Looking up into the pinhole of an irradiated insulator you typically will get no light (or very little as compared to a non-irradiated glass insulator) showing through the bottom of the base.

There also is no such listing for a very dark purple in the known colors shown in the price guide.

My opinion is that it has been irradiated. Unfortunately some of this has been going on a lot longer than insulator collectors suspect, so having one for decades does not necessarily mean anything. And although it was not over an irradiated piece, there was a fake insulator planted by someone who later took a friend out, discovered the fakes, and for awhile the hobby was fooled into paying big bucks for fake items. The items were suspect since they were never found anyplace else, (and a few other facts), but the one guy who planted them finally came clean many, many years later.

Also, exposing this to direct sunlight will likely revert it to the original color over time. Depending on the glass, it can take as little as 3 days or over a year! But the general purple color disappears pretty soon and you are left with a shade very close, but not quite, to the original.