Latest projects and new editions to my collection... A complete M-2010 experimental Fred Locke 1898-1899 vintage "combination" insulator with Brookfield glass base and a very early white Fred Locke ink marked era U-4 pony in white . I acquired the top to the M-2010 last year in a trade but it needed a glass base . The little Brookfield glass bases for these are amongst the rarest of glass pieces with maybe 6 known total ... Fortunately I dug a lower part of a little glass base on a dig in Victor that was really clean and displayable ... but it was completely missing it's head up in the cement joint area . I acquired a saveable head for the base from Fred Locke's great grandson, Jim Kimble and did a very exact cut and graft repair . It took nearly six hours of careful work but the two halfs aligned perfectly (even the pinholes and mold lines) ... Using the proper glass repair materials, I was able to fuse the two halfs of the base together to create a very good displayable glass base for this rare porcelain top . It became clear to me Jim's top and my bottom half were made in the exact same mold set in the same production run as every characteristic aligned perfectly . I then used some original Locke sulphur cement salvaged from damaged early gutter specimens to repair the cement joint .

This insulator top has an interesting history. It's top was found in the 1980's along with a small collection of very rare ink marked pieces and the one of a kind dry process Peru U-928b in a box at a flee market someplace in New England . All the insulators in the box appeared to be new and never used . My suspicion is they may have originated with some member of the Locke family and were somehow lost ending up at the flee market as all were of the same exact vintage and characteristics of the Locke family house dump/ attic dig specimens . it is even possible they did come from this same dig source and were dug by a previous bottle digger in the early 70's before Ken Willick and Jeff Katchco dug the bulk of what was there . As far as anyone knows none of these glass based combination insulators ever saw service on any lines. These were basically experimental samples used only as sales samples and for electrical testing of the design concept. . These lead to the design of the M-2795 gutter top combination insulators a year or so later . The U-4 pony was something I dug in Victor this spring and is very similar to some of the "attic dig" specimens with an unglazed pinhole and a smooth fireing rest characteristic of twice fired early victor production . It had a piece broken away but fortunately I was able to find a chunk of an additional nearly identical specimen to repair it with