Posted By: DANIEL
They do exist - 03/28/09 01:03 PM
They do exist.
As variations go most collectors believe the Cape Hatteras 1st mold is the rarest limited edition Harbour Light. Well there is one rarer and it is even listed in the 1998 green book. Now when I say variations I am using the standard term that was injected into the collecting bible by Rutherford himself.
For those that never heard of Rutherford I will give a brief summary of him on another post. Rutherford preached that the only way a lighthouse would be reconogized as a variation was only if Harbour Lights or the factory initiated the change. This means that paint variations like the Red roof St Augustine and the White stripe over the Cape Hatteras door are not a variation but just an artist preference. This also means that the “P” version of AdmiralPy Head and the missing H on the APE HATTERAS was a factory quality control problem and not a variation. Not to devalue any of these, but because of early identification of not being a variation, no value or wide spread acceptance as a separate HL identity was assigned to them. (Sorry for the triple negative)
So back to the story. Even though there are many rare dissimilarities of early Harbour Lights there are only a few rare lights that was a HL initiated variation and most of them were from changing of one factory to another. Of course the rarest known variations are the Californians and the most valuable of these of is the Cape Hatters Mold I.
After following ebay for 11 years and logging variations of the first 45 Harbour Lights I came up with the conclusion that one Canadian made Lighthouse was so rare that it has never been listed on ebay until a few weeks ago. I was beginning to even doubt that one existed. I did see one at a ST Augustine signing event but I was beginning to doubt my very eyes.
I finally found one on ebay and it was the original paint sample that even came in the Castle studious box. This is the St Augustine HL 138 Canadian made. From my charting this lighthouse on ebay I have come to the conclusion that there is at the most 70 canadian versions made. It is very possible that only 50 or less of these exist. One of the most interesting features of the Canadian made paint sample is that it is a red roof version. So somehow when the production switched from Canada to Malaysia the shed roof changed to brown and after three thousand was made a couple hundred of them were made red again.
O’ Ya I did win the bid I am now the proud owner of an St Augustine “made in Canada” Paint sample.
As variations go most collectors believe the Cape Hatteras 1st mold is the rarest limited edition Harbour Light. Well there is one rarer and it is even listed in the 1998 green book. Now when I say variations I am using the standard term that was injected into the collecting bible by Rutherford himself.
For those that never heard of Rutherford I will give a brief summary of him on another post. Rutherford preached that the only way a lighthouse would be reconogized as a variation was only if Harbour Lights or the factory initiated the change. This means that paint variations like the Red roof St Augustine and the White stripe over the Cape Hatteras door are not a variation but just an artist preference. This also means that the “P” version of AdmiralPy Head and the missing H on the APE HATTERAS was a factory quality control problem and not a variation. Not to devalue any of these, but because of early identification of not being a variation, no value or wide spread acceptance as a separate HL identity was assigned to them. (Sorry for the triple negative)
So back to the story. Even though there are many rare dissimilarities of early Harbour Lights there are only a few rare lights that was a HL initiated variation and most of them were from changing of one factory to another. Of course the rarest known variations are the Californians and the most valuable of these of is the Cape Hatters Mold I.
After following ebay for 11 years and logging variations of the first 45 Harbour Lights I came up with the conclusion that one Canadian made Lighthouse was so rare that it has never been listed on ebay until a few weeks ago. I was beginning to even doubt that one existed. I did see one at a ST Augustine signing event but I was beginning to doubt my very eyes.
I finally found one on ebay and it was the original paint sample that even came in the Castle studious box. This is the St Augustine HL 138 Canadian made. From my charting this lighthouse on ebay I have come to the conclusion that there is at the most 70 canadian versions made. It is very possible that only 50 or less of these exist. One of the most interesting features of the Canadian made paint sample is that it is a red roof version. So somehow when the production switched from Canada to Malaysia the shed roof changed to brown and after three thousand was made a couple hundred of them were made red again.
O’ Ya I did win the bid I am now the proud owner of an St Augustine “made in Canada” Paint sample.