Production on Burrows Island began in California, but was soon shifted to Castle Studios in Ontario Canada. The craftspeople at Castle Studios, made a few changes to the master mold. These changes had three purposes: to improve the aesthetics of the piece, to make it easier to cast, and to make it easier to paint. The changes included the addition of a 'collar' below the ventilator bulb to strengthen the ball and keep it from easily being knocked off. A ball bearing replaced the original hand formed ventilator bulb to make it perfectly round.

The crudely formed windows and doors were also 'cleaned up' by Castle Studios during the time it was produced in Ontario. All of the windows were improved, but the most noticeable difference is in the window over the front doors. On the pieces made from the original California mold, the window has 6 panes while on the revised mold, the window has 9 panes. Note in the photos below the improvement to the window in the tower (left of the double doors). All other windows were similarly improved. The doors also were cleaned up and 'wood grain' was added.

The pieces made from the original California mold (left, top photo) had more crudely shaped doors and windows than the version of the mold after it was 'cleaned up' by craftspeople from Castle Studios, Ontario, Canada. Note the doors now have 'knobs' and more defined and wood-grained effect. The window over the double doors in the early mold had 6 panes while the later version had 9 panes.

However, the lighthouse was selling so poorly that Harbour Lights decided to stop production and announced that the piece had been retired. But the message failed to reach the factory and production continued until almost the whole balance of the 5,500 pieces had been made. What to do? Harbour Lights destroyed the pieces made in error in order to keep their word about the retirement.

This is a very unique piece among the Harbour Lights collection. It has three different characteristics, any one of which by itself would make it unique for collectors.

1. The flag error
2. A mold change
3. A shorter than planned production run

This page contains information that was developed independently by John Chidester before his affiliation with Harbour Lights as Webmaster. This information has not been fully verified by Harbour Lights. Photos of the variations copyright John Chidester

Updated: 03/01/04