Return to the National Insulator Association home page APRIL
8, 2004
SPECIAL
NOTICE
BE
ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A NEW BATCH OF IRRADIATED INSULATORS ON THE MARKET
This advisory
is to notify the NIA membership of irradiated insulators being distributed by
former NIA member Bob Harding.
Last summer, Bob Harding, of
Tarlton, Ohio sent a box of common insulators to a fruit-processing plant in
Florida to have them irradiated. Harding
sent photos of the irradiated pieces to the NIA Authentication and
Classification Committee. He also
promised to permanently mark these pieces “July ‘03” with an electric
engraver and send them to the Committee so that they could be included in the
NIA’s altered insulator display, if the Committee chose to do so.
Harding told the NIA and ICON members in a post
dated September 4, 2003, that it was his hope that by studying and
recording the results of these experiments that we would be able to protect a
lot of collectors from making a substantial investment on an artificially
colored insulator. Harding also
stated, “to me nothing could ruin my interest in a hobby more than spending a
sizable amount of money on a fake. I
think it's important as well that we continue to support insulator shows and
view each other’s collections so we know when something doesn't look quite
right. I will bring these to the
Springfield show to share in person. Hope
to see a lot of you there. More
results to come. Bob"
Harding
did in fact bring some of the pieces to the November 2003 Mid-Ohio Show in
Springfield, and provided a "seminar" there where he told the group
how he had irradiated the pieces, and how he had further altered some of them by
heating them in an oven. Observers
noted at the time that the samples were not permanently marked.
At
this point, the NIA requested that Harding not publish the results of these
experiments until they were compared to data already in the Authentication &
Classification Committee’s possession.
Shortly
thereafter, Harding advised the Authentication & Classification Committee
that he had chosen to retain a number of the key samples, rather than forward
them for inclusion in the NIA exhibit and archives.
In
February, an NIA member purchased a bluish colored CD 145 HG Co insulator on
eBay from a first time seller (item number 3270345577).
When the collector received the insulator, he was suspicious of the
strange color and sent a picture to the A&C Committee asking for its opinion
as to the authenticity of the piece. One
of the Committee Members recognized the piece and matched the photo that the
collector sent to one of the photos of the irradiated insulators that Harding
had sent to the Committee this past summer.
In looking more closely at the auction bidding, the NIA noted that on the
second day of the bidding, January 28th, a person whom the NIA
believes is a friend of Bob Harding, bid the piece up from $15 to $150.
Thirty minutes later, Bob Harding himself bid the piece up to $225!
The
NIA Board thought that these circumstances merited looking into, so, on February
25, 2004, a letter was sent to Harding noting these findings and asking him for
an explanation. Postal records show
that Harding received this letter, but he has never offered any explanation for
these activities.
Subsequently,
the NIA learned that on February 15, 2004, Harding himself auctioned a strange
colored McLaughlin CD 252 on eBay (item number 3272925898).
An NIA member won this auction and when the A&C Committee compared
this piece to the original photographs from Harding, they again found that it
was one of the irradiated pieces.
The
NIA Board of Directors reviewed the situation and determined that, beyond doubt,
Bob Harding had violated several provisions of the NIA Code of Ethics.
They voted to permanently revoke his NIA membership, and did so on April
6, 2004.
The NIA now believes that there could be a number of Harding's irradiated pieces released into the hobby. The NIA knows the details of the 24 pieces that he altered last summer, but Harding could easily make more of them, and the NIA unfortunately will not have the pedigree information on these.