Vintage Phones

[Edward]

The 202 is the entry level drug..I mean telephone. next you get a another phone,and another,then a phone booth...

Ha.... all my phones are modern, but if I can manage to get around to having an extension socket fitted, I'm tempted by one of the touch-toned 302s I posted earlier. Reasonabnle compromise between older design and modern necessities....

If ever I had the space for it, I always wanted an old pre-war red telephone box in the hallway. Or better yet, a Police Box (I could do with it being a TARDIS, given the amount of crap I tend to hoard!!).

 

[Feng_Li]

The big brown truck came today...

And brought me these:

An Automatic Electric model 40, late 50's vintage

A Stomberg-Carlson model 1543

Both of these were repaired by Steve Hilsz. His website is a bit of a mess, but he does good work. When I got these phones, most of the guts were badly damaged, but he had them both repaired within a day of receipt, and for a very reasonable price.

 

[Pina Bridgette]

geek alert!

I admit this maybe sacrilege but a friend and I have been discussing for days what it would take to convert a vintage phone from rotary to cellular. A fanciful dream of mine and wouldn't you know it someone out there has already done it?

At $399.00 (!) it's just a bit too steep for my pocket but I am agog with wow!

port-o-rotary http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=286

enjoy!
P.

edit to add: Feng Li, those phones are gorgeous! Especially the model 40. Congrats!

 

[Edward]

I admit this maybe sacrilege but a friend and I have been discussing for days what it would take to convert a vintage phone from rotary to cellular. A fanciful dream of mine and wouldn't you know it someone out there has already done it?

At $399.00 (!) it's just a bit too steep for my pocket but I am agog with wow!

port-o-rotary http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=286

enjoy!
P.

edit to add: Feng Li, those phones are gorgeous! Especially the model 40. Congrats!

That's the one! Yeah, I'd love one of those myself for a bit of fun. Very cool phones.

 

[db5zx]

Until about a week ago I was using a German 1951 W38 phone but just received my Western Electric 202 including ringer box, so I am using that one exclusively now. Not gonna sell the other one, though, in case I need a phone for a second room some day in the future...

 

[pretty faythe]

Had to share

I just had to post this. Had me crackin' up today. We were at the thrift store, my children and myself, lookin around for usable items for school and what not, and my 8 yo was looking at the phones. She came across a rotary phone with the hand piece seperate from the mouth piece and was asking how you work it. I told her just like any other phone, you talk in the mouth piece and listen in the ear piece. The 14 yo comes over and asks how you dial. She was serious. She wanted to know how to know when you stop. I was laughing so hard! I told her, you put your finger in where the number is that you want to dial and pull it over until your finger stops at the stopper. I was saying to them my children are so retarded, jokingly of course, an older lady was nearby and thought it was hilarous too.
Looking back now, I should have bought the phone, but I was in the back to school frame of mind.
Ok, thats all.
Sorry for the interruption

 

[db5zx]

Something similar happen to me a while ago. I was on a guided tour through an old WWII bunker in Berlin. Also in the group was a mom with a little boy, probably around 8 or so. There at a wall was a rotary dial phone and this little kid had a very confused look on his face. His mom noticed and said to him: "You know, that's what phones used to look like back when I was young. You used this little rotary thing to dial the numbers."

And that in Germany, where rotary dial phones where common until the mid-80s at least. I know them very well from when they were still in use and I was born in 1978.

Jens

 

[Starius]

Something similar happen to me a while ago. I was on a guided tour through an old WWII bunker in Berlin. Also in the group was a mom with a little boy, probably around 8 or so. There at a wall was a rotary dial phone and this little kid had a very confused look on his face. His mom noticed and said to him: "You know, that's what phones used to look like back when I was young. You used this little rotary thing to dial the numbers."

And that in Germany, where rotary dial phones where common until the mid-80s at least. I know them very well from when they were still in use and I was born in 1978.

Jens

I was born in '78 as well, and we had a rotary phone until I was 7 years old, I think. In fact, the two century farms my family lived on were still on a 5 farm "party line" until just before the 80s. Try explaining a party line to a kid today. "What, why are 5 houses on the same phone line?"

 

[Mike K.]

I'm fairly new to the vintage phone arena, but definitely would like to acquire one or two for the home (very sick :rage: of electric rings, cell phones, etc.). Some of the prices on eBay seem outrageous. Can anybody give me some ballpark figures for realistic market values on phones such as:

• Western Electric 202
• Western Electric 302
• Stromberg-Carlson 1243

Thanks!

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I admit this maybe sacrilege but a friend and I have been discussing for days what it would take to convert a vintage phone from rotary to cellular. A fanciful dream of mine and wouldn't you know it someone out there has already done it?

At $399.00 (!) it's just a bit too steep for my pocket but I am agog with wow!

port-o-rotary http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=286

enjoy!
P.

I met an artist at an opening a few months ago that had one of those. It was funny to see him just walking around with an unplugged phone. It certainly wouldn't fit in his pocket.

 

[Starius]

I'm fairly new to the vintage phone arena, but definitely would like to acquire one or two for the home (very sick :rage: of electric rings, cell phones, etc.). Some of the prices on eBay seem outrageous. Can anybody give me some ballpark figures for realistic market values on phones such as:

• Western Electric 202
• Western Electric 302
• Stromberg-Carlson 1243

Thanks!

For the Western Electric 302, that is a phone I've frequently looked up on ebay over the last few years. I've paid particular interest to the restored models, with new cloth electrical cords, etc.

Many of these models have gone in the $250 - $350 range. Occasionally, but not often, I've seen them go as low as $175 but this is not common at all.

Now, the models between 1937 - 1940 have a metal alloy casing and restored ones of these usually go at much more of a premium. It is not uncommon to see them go as high as $750. Not always that high, mind you, but you'll be paying more for them than the later models with the plastic housing in any event.

I'm afraid I cannot comment on those other two phone models with any kind of certainty, I've only paid attention to the 302's.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I actually have a metal body 302 that's date-coded 1946, but that's very rare. What I've read is that they went to plastic because of WWII.

I'm partial to the unrestored phones. I do have one restored 1937 with the E handset (grabbed in on a Buy It Now for only 85 bucks!) but it almost looks "too pretty" next to my unrestored veterans. Also, it depends a lot on who does the restoration. Some of them are a mishmash of parts from lots of different years.

I've heard great things about the gentleman in Arizona and I'm thinking of sending him one of my 302s or my good 202. I may skip the high-gloss refinishing and just have him rebuild the dial and go over the internals. He also makes cloth cords in the old style that are reputed to be very good. His website is www.navysalvage.com

 

[Starius]

I actually have a metal body 302 that's date-coded 1946, but that's very rare. What I've read is that they went to plastic because of WWII.

Wow, thats really interesting. I have never heard of a metal bodied 302 from the late 40s. It's always been my understanding, as well, that the metal was diverted for the war effort so they switched to the plastic housing. I wonder if one was left in some inventory stockroom somewhere for years before getting assembled shipped out?
It is a mystery to me. At any rate, you're lucky to have it!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

My '46 is one of those oddball ones with a triple hookswitch for a particular type of party-line use. It's all original but in pretty rough shape, so it may be the one I send to Steve Hilsz for renovation. Definitely a rare bird.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I'm fairly new to the vintage phone arena, but definitely would like to acquire one or two for the home (very sick :rage: of electric rings, cell phones, etc.). Some of the prices on eBay seem outrageous. Can anybody give me some ballpark figures for realistic market values on phones such as:

• Western Electric 202
• Western Electric 302
• Stromberg-Carlson 1243

Thanks!

I got my 1243 from that online auction place for a little less than 50 bucks shipped. Sometimes ya get lucky. Just have to keep your eyes peeled on those auctions.

 

[john z]

The most popular Bakelite phones in England is the 332 (see the ivory one below). These were produced in the 1940's and 50's

Ivory, Red & Green GPO phones in the 50s were not Bakelite but acrylic, Perspex to give it its trade name. Don't wish to be sounding smug here, just thought this ought to be clarified

 

[ScarlettTurner]

I love vintage phones.
I've been wanting an Ericofon for a while now.
I have two old rotary phones, French style, that are just alike. Got 'em for my bedroom. We found them in a thrift store in Tucson, AZ.

Here's a pic ~ not as vintage as most of yours. They're nice but I'd love a '40's phone.

 

[Rick S.]

Here is our 1937 Stromberg-Carlson chrome model.

 

[john z]

Here's 2 of mine. 1960s Dutch model by Bell in Bakelite. I removed the tacky original plastic dial & fitted a heavy metal American Western Electric jobby.

1956 GPO model 232 mounted on a no. 26 bell box.

 

[ScionPI2005]

Here is our 1937 Stromberg-Carlson chrome model.

That is one extremely sharp looking phone!