Dig This Treasure!

So a few years ago I saw this Christmas display that used old glass insulators set on top of a string of lights.  It was mega cute.  I tried googling an image for you, and the best I could find is this, which is also mega cute:

So I set out collecting insulators.  I have a whole bunch now, but have never actually set up said light display.  While in the basement today, I dug the insulators out and figured I would look them up on ebay to see if I should sell them.

I should interject here and say that I am still not totally sure what an insulator is/was.  I mean, the name is self-explanatory, but what these actually insulated is unclear to me.  Something about telephone poles.

I should also add that people EFFING love insulators.  The websites and blogspots devoted to these glass phalli ( I thought it was phalluses but I stand corrected) are numerous.

So anyway, in my stash, I had 3 purple insulators.  It turns out that these are insanely rare.  And valuable.  We’re talking way more money than you could even imagine someone would spend on a piece of purple glass that you stick Christmas lights under for decoration.  Timmy and Joan bought these for me at an auction for $4.

So of course I immediately listed mine for sale and in the matter of a couple hours they already had 18 watchers and several bids. 

And then this happened:

Some glass insulator know-it-all is trying to rain on my purple glass parade.  WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?!  I panicked of course and started frantically looking up what the hell “radiated” insulators are.  Turns out, the term is actually “irradiated,” so basically I should not trust this guy at all.

Irradiated glass, as it turns out, has literally been placed in the presence of a machine that emits radiation, like an x-ray machine.  It turns the glass amazing colors like purple or cobalt blue.  The glass will naturally turns these colors if left out in the sun for decades, say, on a telephone pole, but some scammers don’t want to wait for that to happen.  They buy cheap insulators and then irradiate them.  UGH.

This is a SUPER HOT TOPIC in the glass insulator community and is debated fiercely.  I highly recommend poking around here. Here is a taste though:

^^^ UM, ok THIEF.  Get down off those telephone poles!

So WTH.  Are my insulators fake? I really don’t know.  I don’t think so though.  Who would go through the trouble of irradiating these and then selling them in an auction for $4? 

From what I have read, it is super hard to tell which insulators have been irradiated and which are authentic.  The fact that this guy thinks he could tell just by looking at a photo of mine on ebay is sketchy. 

I am holding out hope for my little insulators! I will let you know how they end up doing!

-Erin