# AM. TEL. & TEL. Co insulator



## antlerman23 (Aug 14, 2012)

i have what i think is a CD 121 AM. TEL. & TEL. Co insulator. it is pretty cude, with all kinds of big and small bubbles in the glass, and it is very wrinkly. If can anyone tell me the date and/or rarity of this piece, i would love to know!


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## botlguy (Aug 14, 2012)

From what I can tell from this picture the style is nothing special and the color is not all that unusual. If seen in person I could probably give a better estimate of value. It appears to be a BLUE tone which is pretty common, if it were a GREEN tone it would be more pricey. So, I'm estimating $3-5 if you can find a buyer.


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## antlerman23 (Aug 14, 2012)

i dont really want to sell it, i was just wondering if the crudeness is unique. that, and how old is it/when was it used?


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## botlguy (Aug 14, 2012)

O.K. I forgot that part. These were used when American Telegraph & Telephone Company expanded there "Toll" or Long Distance operations clear across the entire country in the first part of the 20th century. This style CD 121 or "Toll" insulator was produced by several companies and over a long period of time. They can be found from one coast to the other, North to South. Perhaps one of the others will be able to be more specific about which Glass Company made this particular piece and in what time frame. I happen to have about 3 dozen sitting in boxes in my shop, some from HEMINGRAY, some from BROOKFIELD and 1 or 2 from one of the Denver, Colorado glass companies. 

 As for the crudity, typically the cruder the better. In this case I think the amount I see won't add a great deal of value. I don't see a very large bubble or rock / Pot Stone or swirl of amber color or milkiness. Those type inclusions will definitely drive the price up. Just a little or few of those features don't have much effect.  That said, if I were to have one or two I would rather have that much crudity than none. So, it is more desireable than another might be. 

 I'm pretty sure one of the others will chime in and set me and you straight. [][]


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## BillinMo (Aug 14, 2012)

No need to set anyone straight, Jim, I totally agree with all you said.

 I'm not a toll specialist, so I couldn't tell you manufacturer with any certainty based on profile.  Maybe someone can set the whole lot of us straight?

 Antlerman... does this have a number on top?  If so, it's probably made by Brookfield.


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## antlerman23 (Aug 14, 2012)

It has what looks like a backwards 7 and then a 1 on the top... I have no idea what that means though. And i was wondering, is it possible to date insulators like bottles i.e. machine made or bim? I was just wondering because some of my insulators have a seam that fades out on the sides (like this one) and others have a seam that goes around the "lip" right above the groove. By the way, thank you botlguy and BillinMo for the information!


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## BillinMo (Aug 15, 2012)

There are ways to date insulators, but it's not quite as cut and dried as the BIM/ABM distinction (BUT I'm not terribly knowledgeable about bottles, so that might be a totally ignorant statement!).  There are a whole bunch of traits and patents involved with insulators, and there was some evolution of styles as Western Union and Bell Telephone/ATT changed their standards about every 15-20 years or so.  

 With regard to moldlines, older insulators usually have what we call a "mold line over dome" (usually abbreviated MLOD).  The insulator mold was in two halves, so the moldline runs up the skirt and continues up over the dome (top) of the insulator and down the other side.  

 Around 1890, three-piece molds became more common.  A typical mold had a dome piece and two skirt halves.  The moldline goes up the skirt, then circumferentially around the insulator, usually just below the wire groove.  

 That's just a general trend, though.  Some companies used three piece molds much earlier, and a few kept using MLOD up to almost 1900.  There is also a variation of the three piece mold where the moldline extends up the skirt, wire groove and the top piece is only a small round section of the dome, which sort of resembles a button.  These are often called "button" molds but a few folks really dislike the term.  

 I tried poking around to find some photos (which I'm sure will be easier to understand than all my blathering) but I don't see anything that's really clear.  I'll see if I can put something together over the next day or two.  

 I think the fading you're describing is really just three-piece molds with very weak mold lines, but I could be assuming too much.

 Also - the numbers on yours identify it as a Brookfield.  These are "shop" numbers.  A shop was a three-man team (one experienced glass worker, the other two probably young boys).  Back then, workers were paid by the piece and not by the hour.   A tally person reviewed the insulators coming out of the annealing lehr and counted the number of pieces for each shop, determining how much the crew would be paid.  For some reason, backwards and superimposed shop numbers seem to be common. 

 Hope that helps.


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## harold (Aug 15, 2012)

Any collectors in SW Conn?   I can hone you in on a huge ATT insulator dump.


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## antlerman23 (Aug 15, 2012)

Wow! thank you for the info! i think my insulator does just have very weak mold seams. well now i know what to look for at the flea market! [8D]


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## Brains (Aug 21, 2012)

that's a brookfield made amTelCo.
 With brookfield you can sort of date them by like... the colour of the glass or the quality of the glass or how different aspects of the insulator are formed... like the base of the threads, the threads them selves, how the base is molded, if it's a 2 or 3 piece mold.

 i'd put that 121 at around...eaugh.... 1900-1915.  That's pretty much just a guess... but it's from the same time period as the w.brookfield embossed insulators, which were after the crown embossed brookfields (or...........CR.E.B.'S), and before the green/green aqua brookfield and "B" embossed insulators.  I think crebs made it up until the late 1890's, and brookfields typical green aqua crude brookfield and B embossed insulators started being made around 1916 (maybe...) and brookfield stopped production in 1921 (maybe...)


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