Hello one and all! I've been up to my...er...my lantern!...in genealogical research and haven't been able to annoy you for awhile. Now don't gush over how much you've missed me!

Does anyone know the story about the gap in the Open Edition numbering run? Working from [probably faulty] memory here [at the library], I believe it is around HL 458. When I spoke to someone at HL, recently, she said the records indicated that this phantom number was assigned to a projected West Quoddy model, but that it never went into production. My question, then, is why not, and why wasn't the number then reassigned to something that actually was to be released?

I tried doing a search on this topic in the Forum to see if it had been previously discussed, but nothing comes up readily.

I have to observe that, whatever the changes are coming over Harbour Lights, my membership pieces reached me in record time, this year!

So...for now...

Danny

Oh, but we are so good at gushing - gush, gush, gush! We must have been on the same wavelength because, the last couple of days, I've wondered more than ever what on earth happened to you. I was afraid you'd been lost in the stacks at the library. Have no answers to your questions but I'm glad you're back - stick around for a while!

Thank you, Grace. It's nice to be the recipient of targeted gushing, even if one has to resort to coercion to get it! Could it be that, as one totters on the threshhold of 60, pride becomes excess baggage?


While I wait to hear about the phantom West Quoddy [and I wonder if it was possibly supposed to be an East Quoddy, which hasn't had a GLOW version? She DID say West Quoddy, however], I'll certainly keep nosing around for a LE Southeast Block Island [re your posting in another forum site]. My three experiences in purchasing from Forum members have all been nothing but absolutely positive. Re Daniel's bad luck, I'm thinking that I have a spare LE West Quoddy, although it would be a Malaysian production. I'll have to check on this.

Danny

No one has any enlightenment or amplification on the situation with HL 458 [number now confirmed as HL 458]??? No photos of mock-ups, preliminary versions? No reasons for skipping the number altogether, given that there seems to be no intent to produce a West Quoddy? I'm afraid that my original inquiry is going to get shuffled to the bottom of the list before it comes to the attention of those with the "inside line."

Inquiring minds want to know.

Is it possible that at least a sample was made and if so they "retired" the number? Just a SWAG on my part, but seems in the realm of possibility. If a sample were made, I wonder what happened to it? Maybe it made it to the Rod Watson Museum of HL Trivia and Assorted o\Other Unique Memorabillia........

I have my own list of 'never used numbers' and am meeting with the Youngers on June 5. It's among the items I plan to bring up.

I know that when HL determines to put a sculpted piece into production, they assign a product number to it. A few pieces just get cancelled for various reasons and the number is not reused if it started in production. But these pieces wouldn't have gotten to the stage of casting. Maybe the paint sample.

Such was the case with Point Vicente - two samples made. One got auctioned for $10,000 at the 1997 reunion and before that, one was given to a person who helped HL research the light. Wonder if she knows what she's got??

Whoa! Somebody ought to contact her about that Point Vicente. Don't let her or her heirs sell it for a few bucks on eBay.

Thanks, for searching, Danny. Wouldn't it be a miracle if I could find it for the original price? I know, I know - dream on, right?! Once in a while, you do hear about such wondrous events, however. After I'd been collecting for several years, I ran into a couple of ladies at my dealer's. They told me they had just started collecting and had gotten - they proceeded to list several of the original seventeen which they found at a dealer in a little store near Houston. It's a good thing I don't have a heart condition!!

For those in the hunt, it's mentioned in one of the Lighthouse Legacies.