Sluggo's Insulator Collecting - Featured Insulator: CD 121

Featured Insulator: CD 121 - from Australia

Photos

Comparison of wire groove and skirt styles

Story - History

This month, let's talk about the CD 121 toll style insulator from Australia. These are very similar in size and style to our regular North American CD 121 tolls. See the photo above with the AGEE one beside a Brookfield 121. Note the more rounded, thicker wire groove ridges on the AGEE. Also the skirt on the North American toll flares out more, while the AGEE skirts are more vertical. Threads on these tolls are metric just like most of the Australian insulators. These insulators were used on telephone subscriber circuits just as the 121s were in North America.

Production of these insulators began in Sydney around 1926. The unembossed ones are believed to be the earliest production, with the AGEE embossing being added later. AGEE embossed insulators were produced up until 1942 when the company changed name and embossings to C.C.G., but it is likely that production of this style probably ceased in the early 1930's as they were being replaced by the new subscriber style CD 422s.

My very first Australian insulator was an unembossed one of these in light green. I have bought most of these from eBay auctions, but have received a few through trades with an Aussie collector.

More Photos

Embossing, Colours and Price Guide Listing

There are two common versions of this insulator, those embossed AGEE and the unembossed ones. As these are early AGEE products, they don't have date codes or mold numbers on them. There is a VERY rare variant of this style embossed PMG (for Post Master General) of which only three are known to exist and they are listed at $1000+ US in the GIFONA book. (see photo below)

They come in a wide range of colours including greens, greys, purples, and even dark amber. There are a couple of colours that are so subtle that it is hard to identify them for certain. These are the "clear" and the "rose tint". I believe I have one of each of these colours, but I'm not 100% sure. There are no other listed colours that come close to what I have, so I figure these must be the ones. The rose tint piece, in the right light, on a white background, seems to have a slight pinky cast to it, so I assume it must be the rose tint colour. I have a clear one as well, but in most North American colour lineups, it would be called smoke or gray tint. It is definitely not clear by normal standards or definitions. See the photo below of these two pieces side by side.

The greens, grays and amethysts are the most common colours. The other colours still appear occasionally. I have never seen one of these in violet, dark amber, light emerald green or emerald green but the GIFONA reference book describes those colours as rare.

CD 121 {F-Skirt} AGEE SB
- Aqua, Sage Green, Smokey Sage Green, Light Green $5-10 US
- Gray, Gray with Amethyst Tint $10-15 US
- Amethyst, Amethyst with Burgundy Tint $15-20 US
- Violet $20-30 US
CD 121 {Unembossed AGEE} SB
- Sage Green, Smokey Sage Green, Sage Green with Milk Swirls, Light Green $5-10 US
- Gray, Gray with Amethyst Tint $10-15 US
- Light Amethyst $15-20 US
- Amethyst $20-30 US
- Amethyst with Burgundy Tint $40-50 US
- Clear, Rose Tint, Ice Aqua, Dark Amber $100-125 US
- Light Emerald Green $250-300 US
- Emerald Green $350-400 US
CD 121 {F-Skirt} PMG SB
- Blue Aqua $1000+ US

Condition

I have about twelve (nine on display, and a few in the sales stock box) of this style insulator in various colours. Condition of most of them is NM to MINT. Minor scuffing, fleabites, small dings and flakes are the most common types of damage seen on these pieces. A number of mine have fairly large bubbles in the skirts, so molding quality control may have been a problem. As with all of the AGEE insulators, the pinhole and threads are usually very precisely molded and quite clean. One of mine has numerous vertical stress cracks in the skirt and up into the threads. This one is also slightly off-round. I'm not sure if the cracks happened during manuafacture or after when in use.

Still More Photos

My 'clear' (on the left) and 'rose tint' (on the right) ones!

Market Place Musings

These are fairly common insulators and they come up for sale on eBay quite regularly. I'd say there is at least one available every few weeks, if not more. Often they are sold in groups of two or three, which can make for some bargain bidding.

The closing bid prices for this CD seem to vary widely. Auction location seems to play a large role in the success of these auctions. I suppose many North American buyers are reluctant to bid on insulators in Australia, so the US auctions generally get higher bids than the Aussie ones. The less common colours will usually attract more bidding activity, but don't come up for auction very often.

I have paid as little as $3 or $4 US for one of these and as high as $18.50 US for my "rose tint" one.