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.

Very interesting story! Oh by the way, I know where you live so if it ever disappears you can check in the Ocala area.

Congratulations Daniel, now what are you going to do with yourself, the search is over..

Thanks Paul
I still have many goals left. I have been recollecting the first 50 again in single and double digits with an occasional AP or paint sample. I am also switching my whole Florida (and eventually my whole southern light) collection to AP’s or single digits with an occasional double digit.

I have been doing this since 2000 and what I have learned from watching other collectors rise and fall is to be patient and don’t try to build the collection all at once. I have been taking my time and have passed up many a lighthouse that I wanted but I have learned my lesson from building my first collection in 98. Only buy what you have money for, and only use a credit card if you have the money to instantly pay it off.

Daniel, when you say that the Canadian made paint sample is a "red roof version", which roof are you talking about, the lantern room or the attached entryway (which I think you call a "shed")?

My Malaysian St. Augustine, FL #178/5500 has a bright red lantern room roof and a brown roof on the entryway...

The roof color variation is the building that leads into the lighthouse itself. The Harbour Light brochures show the red version or at least the early brochures do. The picture in the brochure probably is the very paint sample I own.
I heard of stories from Kim that some of the lighthouses still had wet paint on them while they were photographed for the brochures

Daniel,

I too have what I believe to be a Canadian Mold St. Augustine, HL138. mine is marked "AP" on the flag, and has a thinner-than-usual base from, i believe, excessive sanding that a lot of Canadian mold pieces exhibit. This piece also has grey felt on the bottom that extends all the way to the edge. The square white normal label is affixed to the base. On mine, the "shed" that attaches to the tower's roof is a high gloss brownish grey color.

You would think that since the artist proofs were made first and handed out to the Sales rep they would be the early Canadian made. Yes the fact that it is heavily sanded is a sign that it is a Canadian made.

This is my theory. The first paint sample (the one now in my possession) was rushed out and photographed for the brochures. HL later rejected this sample and approved one with a grayish brown roof. The AP that KEWEENAW has was later accepted as the HL approved paint sample and all of the St Augustine’s including the first “Canadian made” have the grayish brown shed roof. After around the production of 3,000 somebody decided the shed roof was the wrong color and about 2oo to 300 was correctly painted red.

The reason I feel that KEWEENAW’s St Augustine AP is a paint sample is the fact it does not have the standard set back green felt. Yes some later Canadian Lighthouses had a gray felt but it was set back and was done earlier than this time period. For the reunions and other events HL would take their paint samples that had no felt and put on them what ever felt could be found at the time, add a HL sticker and prepare a nice gift for the collectors. I have helped collectors in the pass to make judgment calls on HL Lighthouses that were on ebay to determine if they where paint samples or not. The first sign I look for is a un-standard felt.

To prove this theory wrong, would be for somebody to come up with St Augustine with a red roof shed that is made in Canada. Its number would be somewhere between 10 and 79.

Congratulations Daniel on your rare find!!!

I'm sure you'll be on the hunt for something even more rare.

Daniel,

A very interesting theory. There is an interesting story that goes along with the piece I have. I could take some pics of mine and post them on here, but I'm not sure how to post them. If youre interested, let me know.

Yes
Love to see the pictures and hear the story.

I'll see about getting some pictures taken hopefully today, if not tomorrow. Can you tell me how to post them here?









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Red roof on shed paint sample

I will put up an image of mine which has the normal paint job when we get home tomorrow, we are getting a grand-daughter fix for a few days..

Good idea Paul
Rich has the Malaysian red roof version. It would be nice if he could email you it for comparison so that you could post that one also.

Here are the images of a Maylasian Red Roof St. Augustine. You'll notice that the keeper's House roof is all one solid color with no off setting shingles as in Daniel's Paint Sample. Probably an artist's variation.



You can see that the later Red Roof version is a much brighter red then the Paint Sample.



Daniel's theory of the first 3000 being made with brown roofs must be correct as you can see by my Red Roof version being serial number 3319.



It was a very lucky coincidence that I bought the Red Roof version when I did. I was in St. Augustine at the Ancient Mariner Shop in 1994 celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary. I was interested in getting a St. Augustine Lighthouse and the one on display had a brown roof and had a small chip in the base. The girl went to the stockroom to get another piece and it had a red roof. I personally liked the brown roof better, but, my son-in-law who was born and raised in St. Augustine said that the correct paint scheme was the red roof version. The rest is history.



To add images

Paul,

Thanks for posting the pics!

Daniel,

Paul has posted the pics I Emailed him in my posting above. What do you think?