hemihampton
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2006
- Messages
- 9,140
- Reaction score
- 6,160
- Points
- 113
ORIGINAL: Brains
Insulator's a cd-106 hemingray from the late 1890's. The blue ones like yours are a bit uncommon, if you ask me- i once thought they were made during the 1894-1895 muncie plant shutdown/Covington re-activation because all the 9's with that style of prismic embossing like yours turn up in that same blue colour, a sort of green aqua colour, and sometimes a rare true green. Most commonly the blue colour- i think i've actually seen more blue than aqua in that style. Sometimes they're really junky too, there's a listing in the guide (for some reason) for a milky or bubbly hemingray blue hemingray 9 and 12. (they made the 12's in the same colours and embossings) that are the same thing... just for some reason randomly really bubbly.
Why would i think they're from the 1894-5 covington production? I have no idea... that doesn't make any sense. Maybe it does. The date seems way too old for prismic embossing... should be script, and the colour isn't a covington colour. Or maybe it is? I didn't work there so i wouldn't know for sure. Usually covington produced insulators were light/ice shades... but that was during normal production before the muncie plant- maybe they got their glass making..........stuff.... from a differen't supplier during the re-start? Was it that big sand dune in Michigan city? That's the one responcible for ball blue and hemingray blue... but your hemingray blue doesn't look like 1920's hemingray 42-with-a-1-on-the-dome hemingray blue like the michigan city sand was responsible for. I feel like that odd shade of hemingray blue only shows up on 9's and 12's with that style of prismic embossing and that sort of glass texture. Lots of times those show up with a lot of dome glass and they're usually really crude.
You can find them in two places here in columbus- one's a dump and the others the toledo-columbus railroad on the west side of the tracks eh?
Your 9 is pretty uncommon compared to the typical aqua units people always find. More so than the other prismic embossed ones, much more so than the stamp embossed ones, and maybe as much as the script embossed ones. If you find a true hemingray blue 9 with a script embossing that'd be something.
I think the book value for a hemingray blue 9 was 50-75??? or was it 40-50?? maybe 20-30? I feel like it's none of those- fortunately no one wants to pay that much for one (which would make the price low right?) and unfortunately at shows people always want book value for them (awww no such luck).
Nice insulator!