Friday, Aug. 26, 2011 — I’ve been following a number of auctions on eBay for some ultra-rare keys — including one that’s ending this morning.
That key is Shawplex key, made by the Specialty Shoe Manufacturing Co. about 1913. The interesting thing about this key is that it was one of the companies that Vibroplex went after for copyright infringement. Vibroplex’s general manager, J.E. Albright, was a very good businessman because he knew that all of those patent-violating bugs were probably going to be in use (though the company took ads out in trade magazines trumpeting their court victories over patent infringers). In his ads, he also said that companies that allowed their employees to use infringing bugs — and the owners themselves — were possible targets for litigation.
Rather than force telegraph operators to ditch their infringing bugs, Albright came up with a licensing deal; for $1, you could “license” your infringing bug. You got a metal nameplate to rivet on your key to note it was “licensed but not manufactured” by the Vibroplex Co. It’s not known how many keys were licensed, but quite a few were — judging solely by the fact that these special-tagged keys, referred to by collectors as “Albright bugs” — are uncommon but not exceedingly rare.
The Shawplex up for auction is an Albright bug.
WHAT? ME? ANOTHER SPEED-X? Yes, I picked up yet another Les Logan Speed-X bug — but I got it well worth the money.
The upper chrome plated parts are in excellent shape; that much was clear from the auction photos. The base and T-bar pivot frame had some problems; not major, but enough for most collectors to pass it by apparently.
The base has some paint loss on the left side corners front and back. The T-bar pivot frame has been refinished with a smooth, shiny black finish — which stands in contrast to the black wrinkle paint of the base.
My fear was that the pivot frame may have broken one of its “ears” and had it glued in place with the paint job to cover the repair. The pivot frame is made of fairly brittle pot metal.
That isn’t the case, a previous owner just wanted to repaint it. I imagine the pivot frame had some paint loss or something. Other than paint, one of the screws on a weight is a replacement, but all the other hardware is intact and in great shape. I got this bug so cheap I was considering parting it out; after looking at it I think I’m going to refinish the base and pivot.
I’ve refinished one Speed-X bug and it came out great. I have more than one speed-x that could use a refinish job, and I would like to get more experience with the wrinkle paint. I’m not going to refinish a key that’s in very good shape paint-wise, and I’m also not going to sweat the value of the refinished bug. These keys aren’t rare anyway.
The thought among collectors is to leave them in “as found” condition. I can agree with that on the rare ones (like several of the ones I have in my collection), but the run-of-the-mill daily driver bug, I have no problem refinishing it. Enough on my key collection philosophy!
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