NATIONAL INSULATOR ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

Here is the link to the NIA Newsletter fall of 2003.    EC&M scam.

www.nia.org/drippoints/archive/DP_fall_2003.pdf



It's long,  but is a very interesting read.  

E.C. & M. ~~ & M & M & more M.

HOLY CRAP!!  What the heck is going on. 

Have you been following the "pressed glass" in Pole Top Auctions?    I admit,  I'm the dude that is usually late to the party but come on.... this is ridiculous. 
Move over Clubhouse,   don't look back Cassins,  another form of western glass is on it's way to the moon!

I have several good friends that enjoy these heavy glass objects,   heck,  I like 'um.   I even thought I might enjoy owning a couple of the less common greenish or blue shades...  that was before I finally realized "that train has left the station"  for me.   At the Las Vegas Show I got a reality check from Dennis E., when he told me he was the winning bidder of a highly acclaimed / borderline fantastic E.C.&M.  

Ok,  I'll bite....    what did it cost you ... says me.  

Good thing I was sitting down,  or you could have knocked me over with a feather. 

Let's just say it was a lot of dough!!   

But compared to the price these E.C.&M.s,  from the Patocka Collection,  are getting hammered down at... looks like he was way ahead of the pack.     Check out the results on line.... be sitting down!! 

Like all of you,  I enjoy many different aspects of Western collecting.    Bottles, insulators, advertising,  gold rush items,   California gold rush history,  gold rush pioneer coinage... now there is a category that will make your palms sweat before making an addition to the "little collection".    

I think it's getting too late in the game for me to be getting into this "heavy glass".    I'll just have to enjoy it from a distance.  

Too many things I like!!!    Not enough   M 

It is really amazing to me how well the insulator hobby has recovered from the E.C. &M. fraud of a few years ago.   Some dedicated western collectors helped put an end to that potentially devastating scam!    Phony specimens have been identified,  and pretty much corralled I have been told.   If these prices are any indication... looks like confidence restored.

The story of the capture of the a-hole that allegedly faked the ECM's is fantastic.  Allegedly my arse!  They caught him with the moulds.  Very worthy of a post..  anyone have a copy?  Is there a copy??   

PAT & SHIRLEY PATOCKA COLLECTION

I just received my hardbound copy of Ray Klingensmith's Auction #62.   Ray has been offering these for $14,  that includes postage.    I'm not an insulator collector,  I have found a few,  but the beauty of those San Francisco made gems is hard to ignore. 

I knew Pat Patocka for over thirty years.   Strange twist of fate back in 1974,  my mom had decided to move from Ogden, Ut. to take a job at McClellen AFB in Sacramento.  Pat ended up being her boss.   When my mom told him I had found a few threadless insulators while sloshing around in the mud and water in the early U.P. town of Corinne,  Pat was on the phone with me continually.   I ended up selling him quite a number of those S.Mckee and unembossed threadless "paperweights"...  heck I just wanted bottles.    We became good friends,  later with his involvement with the Auburn bottle show we continued our friendship and visited regularly right up to his passing in 2008. 

    

This Pole top/ Glass Discovery auction has a portion of Pat and Shirley's collection.   Going to take a couple of more auctions to sell it all I think.

Anyway, the long and short of it,  I wanted to have a few pictures of the glass that Pat had collected over the years.  So I bought a catalog.  

Hard bound catalog for 14 bucks....  are you kidding me.    I'm so tight that I screw my shoes off and on,  but I can go $14.

When it arrived,  SWEET!!   Western glass, glass making history,  western telegraph history!    That's just half the catalog.   The other half is quite a grouping of beautiful bottles.    Hostetter collectors have a few real nice ones to bid on. 

 

So,  if you haven't spent your $14 for the catalog,  do it quick before he runs out of them.   I don't know if Ray is going to offer more of these hard bound catalogs,  I don't know how he can do it for this price,  but this one is fantastic.

If any of you foothill diggers/metal detectorists find one of these cast iron insulators...   well,  now you know what it is!!