It's a very sad day...

Just after turning in for the night last night, we heard an awful crash in the living room. We found Boston Light on the floor, broken into 3 pieces!. One of my sons cats decided to get up on our home entertainment center and sent the lighthouse crashing to the floor.. I had them on the entertainment center for a day or two so I could get their permanent home set up. I am heartbroken...

Cathy

What a shame. So sorry. I have a cat and know they can do things like this.
HCS

If you are talking about your new Society piece you probably paid for it with a credit card and have only had it a short while. Many (if not most) credit cards offer some variation of a protection program - lose it, break it, etc, they will replace it. May be worth looking to see if yours offers this option. Save the pieces for now, because if they replace it they may want you to send them a picture of the broken one or actually send them the broken one. Worth looking into.

Thats a shame Cathy. He probably saw something new up there and went to investigate.
Sorry.

Great thought Dave and well worht the try!

Hi Dave,
No, it was one of the original 17. I think I bought it from BobM last year. I haven't even found all the pieces yet. I am missing the top third of the tower. I sprained a ligament in my knee so I can't get down on the floor to look under furniture. I'll have to wait for my husband to get home from work tonight so I can look.

Cathy

Sad to hear about the Boston light
It seems like yesterday when you just bought it.
The good news are that they are now cheaper.

Cathy,

I just have to ask. What happened to the cat?

bobo

Bobo,

Well, despite my husbands best efforts, the cat survived! Seriously, he's fine. The cat has lived here for a year and a half since my son moved back in while he finishes school and he never went up onto the entertainment center that I have seen. Oh well.

Cathy

Cathy - If you find all the major pieces and want me to try and repair it for you I will give it a shot. No garantees that it can be done but there will also be no charge one way or the other. I've had good success so far.

Ohhhh, I really feel for you - one of the original seventeen! That is really sad. We all know how dear that light was to you and truly sympathize. I know you could kill the cat, but he probably received the fright of his life. I wouldn't be surprised if he hid and wouldn't come out - or not. Cats can be so smug about the trouble they cause!

Sorry to hear about the Boston Light, HL 117. If you need another one let me know. I think I have two or three in stock. I know I have at least two because I'm looking at them now.

Bob

Hi Rich,

If I can find the third piece I will take you up on your offer. Thank you.

Bob
I may take you up on your offer too. Thanks!

Cathy

Cathy, do you have any insurance on your lights? I think my policy would cover a replacement.

Wow, that is NOT fun. Hopefully you can replace it, or have Rich fix it.

If you do the latter, you won't have to use your skills of floccinaucinihilpilification on it!

OOC, where'd it break (on the piece, not in the house)?

Jim...no, no insurance but you can bet I am looking into it!

Greg...it's 5:30 AM when I am reading this...had to use the dictionary...I will probably ask Rich to fix it for me and I may replace it anyway...

The only part of the piece that broke was the the tower.

But if that cat does anything like this again HE better have health insurance!

Cathy

Greg,
I too used a dictionary (Random House Webster's College Dictionary). with out any success.
Could not find a listing for
'floccinaucinihilpilification'
HCS

Here it is, from Wikipedia, where I found it. It's the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary that's non-technical. It means "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by said means."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floccinaucinihilipilification

I'd say to look into insurance, for sure. Hopefully, it won't happen again, but if it does, you'd be prepared.

Lighthouses must not warn CATamarans of danger!!

Cute Digger and unfortunately true.

Cathy - The Boston Harbor has been successfully repaired and I am proud to say that only a hairdresser will know that it was in 3 pieces. The pieces were clean breaks at the bottom of the tower and at the catwalk area of the tower. The hardest part was matching the paint but even that turned out a resounding success.

Rich,

Congratulations on your success in attempting to repair what must have looked hopeless or impossible.

Cathy,

Your tears of sorrow can now turn to smiles of joy and happiness.

bobo

Rich,

Thanks for repairing Boston. I can't believe you got it done so quickly! I really appreciate our offer.

Bobo,

Yes, I am thrilled! I can't wait to se it in person.

Cathy

Rich to the rescue! You've certainly become an expert in HL lighthouse repair!

Cathy, you are very lucky to have gotten your light fixed so quickly. That's terrific!

Just a little update. This morning I met up with Rich to pick up the repaired Boston Light. It is absolutely wonderful. Rich did a very professional job on it . You really can't tell where any of the breaks were.
Once again, Rich, I thank you!

Cathy

Thanks Cathy. Now you have the more painful decision as to whether to buy another Boston Harbor that is perfect or to keep the one that is repaired as you representative. My one word of advice is: If you are happy with it and don't mind the repair and don't ever plan on selling it, then why waste the money buying another one. Let your kids worry about it when they inherit your collection.

I bought a California mold “Great Captain Island”.
I got it off a non-collector that inherited from his mother. He knew nothing about collectables and when he sent it, it came with the corner of the roof broken off. It was in perfect shape except for about 3/8”of the roof corner was gone. I did not make a big deal out of it because he was a nice guy, he felt bad about it and he just didn’t know that much about selling collectables. Therefore, I decided to just keep it. Besides, it was a California mold and it was neat to compare the differences with my Canadian and Malaysian.

A couple of months later, I was talking to Rich and he said he would try to repair it. This was not going to be an easy repair. There were no broken pieces in the box to glue back which meant that the roof overhang would have to be molded in. Besides having a step down fascia, it also had shingle design on the roof. Because it was a low number, the paint color was important and I didn’t want the whole roof repainted. Rich would have to blend and match the paint of the new to the old.

Rich did an excellent job and the only way you could actually tell it was repaired is compare it with an other Great Captain island. Even then since it is a California mold and the figurine body is not exactly the same as a Canadian or a Malaysian the only real way to compare is to find an other California made. How easy is that to do?

Since this was a difficult job of recreating the missing roof, I really do not believe a so-called professional could do any better. Rich was able to salvage a damaged Great Captain island California Mold and made it something to behold. Of course, I will never sell it.

Having Rich take on this great challenge of Harbour Light repair is a great asset to us.
Since this forum is a collector’s tool, it only makes sense that it has its own restorer.
Rich does have something going for him with his restoring practices. He has a complete set of HL L.E.’s to reference too. Professional restorers usually don’t have a collectable on hand to compare.

Rich has asked for donations of the damaged early Harbour lights for him to practice on.
Just a reminder that when Rich becomes where he feels he is a professional restorer he will remember those who donated him the lights that got him their.

Thanks for your wonderful comments Daniel. I enjoy repairing those pieces and especially enjoy handing a repaired piece back to the individual and watching their face as they look for the repair. I love to repair the older pieces as they have a character of their own and what may look like a repaired area is actually mold impressions so the actual job of repairing an older piece is actually made easier because of the texture of the older pieces.