PRICE REALIZED: $275
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| ITEM No.: 98 CD No.: --- EMBOSSING: none CONDITION: Some glass missing, external shell and threaded shaft is perfect. SUMMARY: A very early telegraph insulator that is attributed to a Professor G. W. Benedict and dates to the late 1840s. Bearing a resemblance to the 1851 Batchelder insulator, the mounting shaft of this insulator was set into the outer iron shell with solid molten glass. This design was prone to cracking of the glass and was therefore deemed unsatisfactory. This defect is found on most, if not all existing examples. A small group of Benedict insulators were reportedly discovered in a basement in New York in the mid 1990s. A true piece of early American telegraphic history. ESTIMATED VALUE: $500 - $600 OPENING BID: $250 PRICE REALIZED: $275 |