In the wake of the latest HL#111 up for auction on ebay, I wanted to generate some hypotheses as to why this mischevious piece is able to command such publicity, such notice, such high bids. Granted, everyone knows the story of its early retirement at only 1,138 due to structural misrepresentation, but is that alone sufficient to explain its historical trading price somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000? Sure, 1,138 is not a lot of pieces, but the NPL figures do not draw anywhere near that amount, and for that matter, burrows island would give anything to command one-fourth the price of Coquille, much less one-half! So, it cannot be mere numbers. It has to be something else... that certain, unidentifiable something, that glazes the eyes of even the most informed and realistic of collectors, forcing them to reach ever deeper into their dwindling funds to own the mysterious river light Coquille! I don't get it... I've seen only one myself and wasn't blown away by it. And, I've heard other collectors refer to it as "an acquired taste, not the prettiest of the bunch." Knowing this, however, I too fall under Coquille's spell, as every time it is up for auction I cannot help but to check it daily, knowing full well that I would never buy one at its steep trading price. But to be brutally honest, I do fancy owning one from time to time...

It really is amazing, isn't it? The piece itself is not very attractive, especially when compared to the newer GLOW. But it does have that mystique.... With my current income, I'd never buy one at that price. The fact that it's one of the original 17 is probably a huge factor in its hefty pricetag. Not to mention it's a very popular and recognizable lighthouse. Burrows Island was never a very popular sell for HL. It was the original "three years and out" light.

I would surmise that one contributing factor is that almost all of the existing Coquilles are in the hands of private collectors---not secondary market dealers---and thus it is very rare that one comes up for sale. This can also be said of Portland Head Light and the original Hatteras. All of the others---even New Point Loma, which reunion attendees could buy two of---seem to be relatively available from people willing to part with them more easily.

That's a very good point Bill. I didn't think of that.

Yes, I agree, a very good point. The same is also true of St. Augustine LE... it's not very often that it comes up for sale. And for that matter, canadian molds and low numbers for any of the popular 5500 LEs. For example, I've been looking for a canadian Nauset for years, and the only one I was ever able to get my hands on arrived broken...

I agree with Bill H, but I would like to take this one step farther.
The New point Loma was bought by all collectors and secondary market investors.
The coquille was bought buy these plus an other type. Lighthouse lovers. People that love lighthouses and bought the coquille because they liked the light. They may not be collectors or may know nothing about the secondary market. Bought the Coquille long before anyone new about its secondary market value. Some are probably even stashed away in the closet somewhere. Everyone that owns a New Point Loma knows it is valuable. This is not true with the early Harbour Lights. Many of the early collectors may not know what they have. Some early HL may have even been thrown away.

An other thing that adds to the desirability of the Coquille is the story behind the six sided walls. When I first started collecting back in 1996. That was the first story I heard concerning Harbour Lights.
As mentioned above, the fact the Coquille is one of the first 17 allso adds desirability.

Part of the mystique is all the discussion it seems to generate every time someone brings it up, and it was a first(error/smaller edition). I never thought it was anything special but it has recently started to intrigue me both as a lighthouse (I have about a dozen pcs
) and as a HL LE. It also is very rarely seen for sale, and it's always reserved at a very high price.
It's the Holy Grail for most collectors (even though there are 1138 not 1).
Bob

Holy Grail (alleged only one true Holy Grail ever existed, not 1138 of them)? I don't think so, but Coquille River LE has a certain appeal to those of us that have almost all LE HLs.

I doubt that 1138 Coquille River LE's are still in existence in the hands of true die-hard HL collectors. Maybe 75 % or so might be but the other 25 % or so are broken, possibly in the hands of non-HL collectors, or might have been discarded as old giftware that grandma had and is not worth saving.

Let's face it, if you weren't a connected collector and if you didn't know a thing about the collectible known as Harbour Lights, would you pay more than $5 for some obscure lighthouse figurine at a yard sale? You might if you lived in Oregon and recognize the light. Other than that, you would probably be looking at the salt & pepper shakers next to it for $2.

When the Coquille River LE currently on eBay came up for sale, I offered $1000. That was $1400 less than the owner was asking for it. Needless to say, he declined my offer.

Bob

I think the only one I saw was at lighthouse depot?

I remember store keepers telling me that years ago they couldn't give these pieces away, much less sell them for $50.00! My, how times have changed! I know when I started collecting, this one was not in my collection! Then, a store owner told me it was retired, (Had no idea want that meant!) so I started calling all the local stores to see if they had any. One person at a mall store told me they didn't have it, so my next trip to the mall was to see for myself if this was true. Much to my suprise, there was one sitting on the shelf! I bought it, still not knowing if I should get it or not! It turned out to be the best deal I ever made! I think the story behind the piece makes it so appealing to collectors! I know ever time I look at mine, the story of the mistake comes back to me!

Hey Saint John, ...Could you repost that picture of all the Coquille River LE's that Lighthouse Keepers had for sale many moons ago? Was it around the time of the first reunion?

Bob

That was at the 1997 Reunion in San Diego, Bob... You are right, Bob.

We had 5 Coquille Rivers in a display case. My partner, Warren, didn't want to put them all out at once, thinking it might be considered as 'bragging'.

But we did end up selling all of them either there or shortly after at about $2,900 each. And we discovered the variation because we had them together. This Coquille Variation led to a discussion with Kim about how that change came about and led to the discovery of other variations on a total of 16 of the original 17 pieces (if memory serves me right.)

I have no idea where that photo is... sorry. Wish I could pull it out right now.

I do remember that Lighthouse Keepers (our secondary business name) had a drawing and the winner of an Ocracoke NC was Mark Wagner. It was our way of getting the names and addresses of those who attended the first reunion (no directory was published.)

Here is a photo of the Variation Page on Coquille River.

Finally located the photo of the famous 'Five Coquilles' that Lighthouse Keepers had on display at the 1997 Reunion in San Diego:



And here's Paul Brady (right) showing the Coquille River variation we discovered that day to (left to right) John O'Brien, Ken Reese and Betty O'Brien.

Thanks for posting the photo, JC. Since the Coquille LE is so rare, some folks would find it hard to believe that five of the much-sought-after piece would be in the same place at the same time.

Bob

Oh, how we remember that picture of the five Coquille's!

What a special reunion!

Thanks for the memories!

what was the variation?

When production was shipped from California to Canada, the Canadian producer offered to 'clean up' the details on the originals from which the castings were made. These changes were phased in over time on 16 of the original 17 pieces.

Among the common changes:

more detail on the doors and windows
A round ball bearing was used as the ventilator ball and a 'color' was added below the BB to give the ball strength.

In the case of the Coquille, the most obvious change was that the front door went from having 3 panels to 4 panels.

www.HarbourLights.com/modifications/pages/var_coquille.htm

John,

thanks for the info and the web citation

Hey, cool - I was there! JC, Warren, Ken, Paulie, yours truly, maybe Sean? in the Lighthouse Keepers Suite of Luxury. We got pretty excited looking at those Coquilles. If I recall, they also were not all the exact same height - some had a slightly shallower base than others.

T

Yep, Tim. You remember right. That's where we learned about 'bottom-sanding'.

After the pieces were cast, the bottoms weren't always even parallel to the roof line. So after they were de-molded, they were 'bottom-sanded' to smooth off the bottoms. Sometimes that process made matters worse and it certainly wasn't an exacting process.

We had 3 Coquilles at Mackinaw but ... The lore continues!