1915 Monarch Telephone Catalog

[scotrace]

I have a paper bound copy of "Monarch Bulletins," from the Monarch telephone Mfg. Co. of Fort Dodge. This company was bought up, eventually by Automatic Electric.

The catalog is some 150 glossy, heavily illustrated pages. Wall mount oak cased phones, hotel models, switchboards, schematics. I'm thinking is has to be scarce; I haven't turned up any more than two or three references to it via Google, or ABE Books.

Anyone know anything about this?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have a paper bound copy of "Monarch Bulletins," from the Monarch telephone Mfg. Co. of Fort Dodge. This company was bought up, eventually by Automatic Electric.

The catalog is some 150 glossy, heavily illustrated pages. Wall mount oak cased phones, hotel models, switchboards, schematics. I'm thinking is has to be scarce; I haven't turned up any more than two or three references to it via Google, or ABE Books.

Anyone know anything about this?

Such catalogs are very much in demand among telephone collectors -- they were published for the use of independent phone companies, and generally speaking were not distributed to the general public, so not many of them have survived. A number of other companies put out similar catalogues, including Stromberg-Carlson, Kellogg, and Western Electric. The bigger the name the more common the catalogue, but because of their restricted distribution, none of these types of books are easy to find.

 

[scotrace]

Thanks, Lizzie. I knew you'd know, if anyone did. I posted it to a phone collector Yahoo group, and got hit right away with requests for scans. I'd rather find a buyer and let them screw with scanning.

 

[scotrace]

The Telephone Yahoo list people want me to scan it, and give a laundry list of specs to follow. I don't have time to mess with that. How valuable is this? Could it be traded for a WE 302?

 

[vitanola]

The Telephone Yahoo list people want me to scan it, and give a laundry list of specs to follow. I don't have time to mess with that. How valuable is this? Could it be traded for a WE 302?

I'd give you a nice, perfectly working 302 in trade, and think that I had the better part of the deal. I'd figure that the catalog would be worth a late 202 with the F1 handset, or a 302 and a 354 wall 'phone. The 354 is the wall version of the 302, and is rather scarce these days, though not particularly desirable.

 

[scotrace]

I actually mis-typed. I meant to say 202. I have a 302 that's about flawless.

 

[vitanola]

I actually mis-typed. I meant to say 202. I have a 302 that's about flawless.

I could do that. Just need to wait a couple of weeks until we are finished with the insurance adjuster.

 

[scotrace]

I just saw this. If you're serious, send me a PM when you're able.

 

[scotrace]

I'd still be up for it. Thinking of listing the book on eBay.

 

[scotrace]

Selling it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222441970524?