The mystery of the blue door Key West solved by Rich and Daniel.

Probably only those collectors that were involved in early years of Harbour Lights remember the green door/ blue door Key West variation. It was addressed in the Jim Rutherford books that there were two door colors, the green door for the first 500 (Canadian) and blue for all of the rest.

Back in those days I called Jim and asked for more description on the variation. Rutherford said that the variation was not in the door color, it was in that the green door color was made in Canada and the blue in Malaysia.

Then in 1998 the green book guide to Harbour Lights came out and there was no mention of the door color variation just that there was a Canadian made version and a Malaysian version.

I had the Malaysian variation that had the green door (more like a teal color) and was always planning on requiring the Canadian version. But when I looked for a Canadian version it would always be the same green color. It got to a point that I felt there was no such thing as a Blue door version and gave up.

But Rich didn’t give up, He got his Canadian version and it was a different door color from his Malaysian. But it wasn’t that his Canadian had the blue door but the Malaysian made lighthouse that he already had had a blue door. So Rutherford was kind of right that there was a color variation between the Canadian made and the Malaysian. But where he dropped the ball was that there was also a Malaysian green door version.

So in reality there are three known versions. The Canadian Green door (teal) the Malaysian blue door and then the Malaysian green door (Teal), in that order. I have the founder’s collection Malaysian #2 Key West and will have to check the door color.

I was very surprised when I received the Nancy 5500 and it had a green door. I expected a blue door just as my mid serial number Malaysian made piece had. Daniel is correct in the fact thata green door is actually a teal color, but, the blue door is really a deep blue color. The other signicant difference is the door color leading to the tower. The green door pieces have a medium brown door leading to the tower and the blue door version has a dark brown door leading to the tower. All this may be clasified as an "artist preference" but it is still interesting.