Non-standard colors--Western Electric

[poplar1]

Customers could order non-standard colors for an additional one-time charge. You could submit a sample of the color you wanted, and WE would match it. Here is an example of a purple Princess phone. The housing and handset are obviously painted, as are the cords.

My friend Bill, who retired from the Atlanta Western Electric Service Center, said that when he worked there, they used to order clear housings and paint them gold and other colors for these special orders. Has anyone found any of these? I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330900044715  (Seller says it was a special order.)

[paul-f]

I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

...and the inside of the handsets? 

Some standard colors in late production of the Princess sets were painted -- including pink.  The sets I've seen are usually painted over white or ivory.

[LM Ericsson]

This is a painted one, it is stated in the description. I thought it was really purple at first.

[paul-f]

My friend Bill, who retired from the Atlanta Western Electric Service Center, said that when he worked there, they used to order clear housings and paint them gold and other colors for these special orders. Has anyone found any of these? I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

Perhaps Bill was talking about the number plates for the 7 and 9-type dials used on the 500 sets.  These have been found in clear and have been reported on gold sets (and a few others).  The housings were painted on the outside.

[unbeldi]

I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

...and the inside of the handsets? 

Some standard colors in late production of the Princess sets were painted -- including pink.  The sets I've seen are usually painted over white or ivory.

I've got a May-1960 cherry red Princess 701B that was painted over an aqua blue housing. Yes, the inside was painted too, almost perfectly. The paint job was so excellent and the color match to  #53 so perfect that I did not realize it at first, although I knew that red Princesses weren't supposed to be available until 1967 or 8.

There were a couple edge spots where the paint had worn off just a bit to reveal a streak of blue, but I thought it was the blue that was from careless painting around the phone.

The housing was actually a refurbishing and was molded in 1963. Since the early bases in the first half of 1960 had different mounting cord retainers and the early housings for those needed a deeper cutout (mouse hole) in a slightly different position, a new (second) mouse hole had been punched and that edge revealed the blue color as well. So, from this I know that the paint job was a factory job, since the cutout was made after painting.

The handset was a standard red unit, made from soft plastic (1959), so there was no paint job needed there.

The phone can be seen in this fairly recent picture...

[G-Man]

My friend Bill, who retired from the Atlanta Western Electric Service Center, said that when he worked there, they used to order clear housings and paint them gold and other colors for these special orders. Has anyone found any of these? I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

Perhaps Bill was talking about the number plates for the 7 and 9-type dials used on the 500 sets.  These have been found in clear and have been reported on gold sets (and a few others).  The housings were painted on the outside.

Paul-

Very interesting about the clear number rings. Over the last couple of years about 25 to 30 of them have been given away at the TCI shows in California but no one seemed to know what they were originally used for. Dan Golden thought that they may have been used with a changeable colored paper back but didn't know for sure.

There were two styles that were given away. One had the three mounting screws for the earlier 7-type dials and the other was as what is seen in your photo for use with the later locking ring.

[G-Man]

I forgot to add that they were in Western Electric packaging and no one knew what their use would have been out in the field.

[Jim Stettler]

I have seen the violet rd button trimline. This was cast in violet plastic. The handset and base were owned by 2 different collectors. Eventually someone bought both pueces.I had the opportunity to by the phone (no cord) for $500. It did sell.

The clear (clear #) plates were used on some clear sets, however some clear sets had the plates w/white  lettering. I have never seen a WE clear set w/ black lettering.


I was told the purpose of the clear dial rings (b/w lettering),  were used for back painting on special color sets. These are likes Pau'ls examples.

The clear (clear #) plates were used on some clear sets, however some clear sets had the plates w/white  lettering. I have never seen a WE clear set w/ black lettering.

My only guess on the unpainted lettering on clear dial rings would be to paint the lettering in the shop.
I don't know why they wouldn't make these like standard rings tho.




Jim

[Jim Stettler]

[q
...and the inside of the handsets? 

Some standard colors in late production of the Princess sets were painted -- including pink.  The sets I've seen are usually painted over white or ivory.
[/quote]

I've got a May-1960 cherry red Princess 701B that was painted over an aqua blue housing. Yes, the inside was painted too, almost perfectly. The paint job was so excellent and the color match to  #53 so perfect that I did not realize it at first, although I knew that red Princesses weren't supposed to be available until 1967 or 8.

There were a couple edge spots where the paint had worn off just a bit to reveal a streak of blue, but I thought it was the blue that was from careless painting around the phone.

The housing was actually a refurbishing and was molded in 1963. Since the early bases in the first half of 1960 had different mounting cord retainers and the early housings for those needed a deeper cutout (mouse hole) in a slightly different position, a new (second) mouse hole had been punched and that edge revealed the blue color as well. So, from this I know that the paint job was a factory job, since the cutout was made after painting.

The handset was a standard red unit, made from soft plastic (1959), so there was no paint job needed there.

The phone can be seen in this fairly recent picture...


[/quote]

I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

...and the inside of the handsets? 

Some standard colors in late production of the Princess sets were painted -- including pink.  The sets I've seen are usually painted over white or ivory.

I've got a May-1960 cherry red Princess 701B that was painted over an aqua blue housing. Yes, the inside was painted too, almost perfectly. The paint job was so excellent and the color match to  #53 so perfect that I did not realize it at first, although I knew that red Princesses weren't supposed to be available until 1967 or 8.

There were a couple edge spots where the paint had worn off just a bit to reveal a streak of blue, but I thought it was the blue that was from careless painting around the phone.

The housing was actually a refurbishing and was molded in 1963. Since the early bases in the first half of 1960 had different mounting cord retainers and the early housings for those needed a deeper cutout (mouse hole) in a slightly different position, a new (second) mouse hole had been punched and that edge revealed the blue color as well. So, from this I know that the paint job was a factory job, since the cutout was made after painting.

The handset was a standard red unit, made from soft plastic (1959), so there was no paint job needed there.

The phone can be seen in this fairly recent picture...

I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

...and the inside of the handsets? 

Some standard colors in late production of the Princess sets were painted -- including pink.  The sets I've seen are usually painted over white or ivory.

I've got a May-1960 cherry red Princess 701B that was painted over an aqua blue housing. Yes, the inside was painted too, almost perfectly. The paint job was so excellent and the color match to  #53 so perfect that I did not realize it at first, although I knew that red Princesses weren't supposed to be available until 1967 or 8.

There were a couple edge spots where the paint had worn off just a bit to reveal a streak of blue, but I thought it was the blue that was from careless painting around the phone.

The housing was actually a refurbishing and was molded in 1963. Since the early bases in the first half of 1960 had different mounting cord retainers and the early housings for those needed a deeper cutout (mouse hole) in a slightly different position, a new (second) mouse hole had been punched and that edge revealed the blue color as well. So, from this I know that the paint job was a factory job, since the cutout was made after painting.

The handset was a standard red unit, made from soft plastic (1959), so there was no paint job needed there.

The phone can be seen in this fairly recent picture...

Somewhere I have a soft plastic red Princess from 1960 or 61.
I have heard that there were several  colors of soft plastic that they used on some  early Princess phones.

Jim

BTW:  They also made some soft plastic 302's.

[paul-f]

Very interesting about the clear number rings. Over the last couple of years about 25 to 30 of them have been given away at the TCI shows in California but no one seemed to know what they were originally used for. Dan Golden thought that they may have been used with a changeable colored paper back but didn't know for sure.

There were two styles that were given away. One had the three mounting screws for the earlier 7-type dials and the other was as what is seen in your photo for use with the later locking ring.

I forgot to add that they were in Western Electric packaging and no one knew what their use would have been out in the field.

There are some examples below.

Back to the original subject...

My friend Bill, who retired from the Atlanta Western Electric Service Center, said that when he worked there, they used to order clear housings and paint them gold and other colors for these special orders. Has anyone found any of these? I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

Parts were generally painted primarily on the outside surface, with the exception of the number plates for the 7 and 9 dials described above.

The age old question remains though -- When we find a painted set, how do we KNOW whether it was painted by  Western Electric or someone else?

As mentioned, we believe Western Electric tended to be better than others at painting the INSIDE of the housings, and even handsets, than non-WE refurbishers or hobbyists.  However, I have seen a few NOS sets in WE packaging that didn't have the insides of the housings or handsets completely painted.  Perhaps the quality deteriorated after some date -- some time in the mid-1970s?

Here are photos of a few 500 sets that have been presented as WE special order colors in the past.

[G-Man]

The packaging on the number plates given away at the TCI shows bore Western Electric "P" numbers.

But no one has been able to they were in a local field inventory. What would a local tech need with them?

[poplar1]

My friend Bill, who retired from the Atlanta Western Electric Service Center, said that when he worked there, they used to order clear housings and paint them gold and other colors for these special orders. Has anyone found any of these? I assume they were spraying the inside of the housings.

Perhaps Bill was talking about the number plates for the 7 and 9-type dials used on the 500 sets.  These have been found in clear and have been reported on gold sets (and a few others).  The housings were painted on the outside.

I talked to Bill the other day to get a clarification. He said he was talking about the gold-plated 500s and not painted gold ones. He confirmed that they ordered clear housings, clear number plates and clear handsets, not white or another color. They sent the handset and housing out to be gold plated on the outside, and the number plate was painted from the inside.

[rdelius]

I once stayed at a Knights Inn, there was a 554 non dial set in non painted purple in the lobby.Might have ITT not WE

[SunriseEarth]

Bumping an old topic, due to a recent find of mine.   I came across a lot of three Princess phones on eBay and decided to purchase it.   One was a white 702B (and actually white still!).  Another one was a red 702B with a damaged original line cord.  Each of those are good finds on their own, but the one that really stuck out was a gold 702B.   However, it's not the mirrored gold; it appears to be painted with the same gold that was used on the early bases.   There is some wear on the transmitter and receiver caps that shows yellow underneath.   The line cord and handset chord are brown.  The date on the bottom is 12/62.   

Anyway, I intend on taking many photos when the phones arrive.   

[Jim Stettler]

Bumping an old topic, due to a recent find of mine.   I came across a lot of three Princess phones on eBay and decided to purchase it.   One was a white 702B (and actually white still!).  Another one was a red 702B with a damaged original line cord.  Each of those are good finds on their own, but the one that really stuck out was a gold 702B.   However, it's not the mirrored gold; it appears to be painted with the same gold that was used on the early bases.   There is some wear on the transmitter and receiver caps that shows yellow underneath.   The line cord and handset chord are brown.  The date on the bottom is 12/62.   

Anyway, I intend on taking many photos when the phones arrive.   

On later "C" (recycled) plastics they would paint them the same color. I assume it is because the recycled plastic can have  variations in the shade of color, This becomes more apparent as they age. I think they threw all the different shades of yellow in the same melting pot. By painting them in a standard "polane" color, the plastics will fade the same.
JMO,
Jim