Vintage Phones

[Scuffy]

Gorgeous phone Lucky!!!

Okay I know I said I wouldn't repost the phone pix but I have to now! I'll just leave one in there. And without further adeu...


Maybe an old intercom or switch type phone? Call waiting?

I wonder if Commissioner Gordon knows his phone is missing!!

 

[Sefton]

My newest phone: a 1930's Kellogg series 1000 "redbar" wall phone. The button on the right side of the phones body is a "party line" switch (not functional). 'twas a Christmas gift from my wife.

 

[La Julia]

Wow, that is a beautiful phone, very lucky

 

[Sefton]

Yes, I'm lucky. Lucky to have a wife who appreciates my love of vintage things. Right now our toddler is learning to appreciate the loud sound of those old brass bells ringing.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

A 232 in ivory with internal bell

The little thing on the right is to put people on hold it winds up like a musical box, and plays a little tune, the pull out "cheese tray" contains dialing codes, or you can put a jotting pad in it

 

[Sefton]

That 232 is great. I've never seen one of those "on hold" boxes before. Very nice piece and the original cloth cord on the handset too. Good find.

 

[Brinybay]

I've been bitten...

...by the vintage phone bug. To the point where I want to learn to fix them myself. Has anybody here learned to work on them? The electronics don't seem to be too difficult.

Soon as I get one, I'm going to have a land line hooked up. I checked with the two phone service providers out here, Qwest and Comcast, they both support rotary phones. Next step is to get one at a decent price. There is a particular model I want to get, a Western Electric E1 D1, or one similar, like in the picture below:

 

[Brinybay]

Touch-tone menus when using a rotary, a solution

Here's an article I found on how to hook up a touch-tone pad to your rotary so you can still press 1 for this, that, or the other w/o having to hang up and call from one of them new-fangled touch tone phones:

http://atcaonline.com/ttpad.html

 

[Cricket]

I had no idea they had the "on hold" addition. Very interesting!

 

[DeaconKC]

Great phones. Gonna have to check out the tone add on too.

 

[Sefton]

Brinybay, the Western Electric E1 D1 is a great phone. I love mine, it has such a classic style. One of the best old phones ever. Since you seem to have been bitten by the vintage telephone bug (an incureable condition I,m afraid) try to get an original bakelite ringer box for it. Good luck.

 

[ScionPI2005]

That's an awesome phone, and would make a great addition to any collection.

In regards to phone repair, I haven't done too much. However, I have replaced the phone cord from the handset to the phone base on a vintage desktop phone I have. That wasn't too difficult. There's a vintage phone supply store online (I can't remember the name of it currently, but I'll try to look it up or someone else may know what I'm talking about). I ordered a phone cord from them...unscrewed the handset and the base...detached the phone wire clips from the terminals, and re-attached the new cord. It works fine now.

...by the vintage phone bug. To the point where I want to learn to fix them myself. Has anybody here learned to work on them? The electronics don't seem to be too difficult.

Soon as I get one, I'm going to have a land line hooked up. I checked with the two phone service providers out here, Qwest and Comcast, they both support rotary phones. Next step is to get one at a decent price. There is a particular model I want to get, a Western Electric E1 D1, or one similar, like in the picture below:

 

[Brinybay]

Brinbay, the Western Electric E1 D1 is a great phone. I love mine, it has such a classic style. One of the best old phones ever. Since you seem to have been bitten by the vintage telephone bug (an incureable condition I,m afraid) try to get an original bakelite ringer box for it. Good luck.

Most of the ones I've seen do not come with the original ringer box, but I've been told you can get a modern equivalent for $15. That would be acceptable for me, I can still hunt around for a vintage ringer box.

 

[Sefton]

One place that has a large selection of vintage phones and parts is www.phonecoinc.com

That touch pad looks like a perfect solution although I'm afraid it's too much work for me. I just don't have the skills or patience for that sort of thing. I'll have to see if I can buy one already assembled. I think I can wire it into the phone myself though (or get some help from my wife the electrical engineer!)

 

[Forgotten Man]

I want to get, a Western Electric E1 D1.

Well, that is a Western Electric model 102. The E1 is the model of handset it has and one of the best looking Western Electric handsets I feel.

That phone is what you see in most early WB movies! All the way up into the 40s you’ll see WE 102’s or 202 Oval bases. I own a WE 202 Oval base with the E1 handset and it’s my favorite phone!

Check out eBay; you could find one for under $100 bucks if you look hard… I bought mine for $80. or so… barn find it was but, I got it in the mail, dusted it all off and ordered the proper cords… hooked it up in 10 minutes and was working like a charm! Western Electric made a great phone and I would say that the 102s or 202s are some of the best especially when you have it in view when you’re watching an old WB picture and you see Edward G. pick one up! Then, you get the chills to hear the sound of it hanging up or being picked up or dialed and you recognize the sounds because YOURS SOUNDS THE SAME!!! Talk about a swell!

awesome phone, and would make a great addition to any collection.

Ha, sounds like an eBay listing! lol

 

[vitanola]

Gorgeous phone Lucky!!!

Okay I know I said I wouldn't repost the phone pix but I have to now! I'll just leave one in there. And without further adeu...


Maybe an old intercom or switch type phone? Call waiting?

This 'phone was used with the Edison Televoice central dictation system.

Early installations used North Electric telephone carcasses, and later 1950's installations used Stromberg Carlson.

 

[Brinybay]

Check out eBay; you could find one for under $100 bucks if you look hard… I bought mine for $80. or so… barn find it was but, I got it in the mail, dusted it all off and ordered the proper cords…

You just answered my next couple of questions - What folks have been paying on the average and where you have been getting them.

 

[Brinybay]

One place that has a large selection of vintage phones and parts is www.phonecoinc.com

That touch pad looks like a perfect solution although I'm afraid it's too much work for me. I just don't have the skills or patience for that sort of thing. I'll have to see if I can buy one already assembled. I think I can wire it into the phone myself though (or get some help from my wife the electrical engineer!)

Thanks for the link. I'm with you on not trying to build the tone pad myself. If/when I ever need one, I was going to try and contact the author and see how much he would want to sell one for, if he was so inclined.

 

[David Conwill]

You just answered my next couple of questions - What folks have been paying on the average and where you have been getting them.

A tip: try Craigslist first, or at least limit your eBay searches to your locale, because old phones are heavy (that's why they've lasted) and they cost a fortune to ship. If I recall correctly, my AE80 was something like $4.99 (nobody bid against me) but was going to be $15.00 to ship across town. Thankfully, it was only across town and I convinced the seller to drop it off to me at work.

-Dave

 

[Brinybay]

A tip: try Craigslist first, or at least limit your eBay searches to your locale, because old phones are heavy (that's why they've lasted) and they cost a fortune to ship. If I recall correctly, my AE80 was something like $4.99 (nobody bid against me) but was going to be $15.00 to ship across town. Thankfully, it was only across town and I convinced the seller to drop it off to me at work.

-Dave

Yup, been doing that, CL and eBay. It's safe now to tell you the pic I posted was a pic from a live auction on the latter, but has now closed. It went for $132.00 + shipping, is that too much? It was for me, I quit when it started getting over $80. I factor in the cost of shipping with the max I want to pay. In this case, it was $10.00 to ship it to Seattle, so I thought that was reasonable.

Sometimes I suspect that many sellers on eBay, not just phones, try to gouge the shipping costs as a way of not having to share the $ with eBay, but maybe I'm being too cynical. So far, the closest I could find any kind of vintage phone locally was a guy in Portland. Since my Mom lives in Vancouver, I could have it shipped to her place and kill two birds with one stone, get the phone and visit Mom. But it wasn't the style I really wanted, so I passed on it. I'll keep looking and try not to get too anxious and pay too much.

What about others here, do you mind sharing how much you paid for your phone?