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Leather Covered Telephones

Started by paul-f, July 25, 2010, 01:23:24 PM

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paul-f

The recent discussions on leather covered Face Standard (and ITT) Jewel Box phones rekindled my interest in this subject.

  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3091.0

I'll post photos of several other leather covered sets and encourage others to add to the list.
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paul-f

#1
Contempras from Northern Electric/Northern Telecom.

Sometimes listed as the "Talia."

Could be ordered in light or dark shades.
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paul-f

#2
ATC Genie Phones by American Telecommunications Corporation (ATC), El Monte, CA.

Listed in a later Comdial catalog in:

  • Persimmon Red Leather
  • Antique Brown
  • Gold and Brown Leather
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paul-f

#3
Leather Covered Delta (Trimphone) (UK)

For background on this interesting set, see:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimphone
 http://www.phone-pages.org.uk/spec.htm

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Greg G.

#4
I kinda like the looks of the first few pictures.  It adds some class to what is otherwise (IMO) a rather boring looking phone, especially the Talia.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

teka-bb

Desk phone covered with brown "leather", made by NSEM, type Unifoon TDK
=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

paul-f

Thanks, Remco.  This looks like the same style set, but in rotary.  ISTR it was sold in the US by ITT for a while.
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LarryInMichigan

I vaguely remember sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s a trend to cover all sorts of things in leather.  Apparently, phones were not immune.

Larry

HarrySmith

Pretty wild stuff :)
I really like the Genie phone in Red ;D
Do you have anything in your collection that is not leather :-\
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

teka-bb

Quote from: paul-f on July 25, 2010, 02:57:42 PM
Thanks, Remco.  This looks like the same style set, but in rotary.  ISTR it was sold in the US by ITT for a while.

NSEM from The Hague (Nederlandse Standard Electric Maatschappij) was a daughter company of BTMC Antwerp in Belgium (Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company) that was owned by ITT. The circuit board of the Dutch Unifoon was designed according to Dutch PTT specifications.

I've been told that this phone itself was designed in Belgium but haven't found any proof of that fact yet.

Dutch PTT only provided this model with push buttons to their customers, the first batch was pulse dialing and the later ones were dtmf.

RTT (Belgian PTT) provided both dial and push button version to their customers.
=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

paul-f

Quote from: HarrySmith on July 25, 2010, 06:11:00 PM

Do you have anything in your collection that is not leather :-\


I'll have to sleep on that question...   :o
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HarrySmith

You have got to be kidding :o
That cannot actually be a phone, you photoshopped it, right ???
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

paul-f

#12
That is a real working phone.  In fact, I actually bid on it and won and it is now in my collection.

So, I can really sleep on it.

BTW, they couldn't figure out how to get the handset to activate a hookswitch so there's a small toggle switch above the dial to manually go off hook.  There's also a small red light to remind you to hang it up when through.

It's really less convenient to use than even the Jewel Box set.
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Dan/Panther

Here are several of my Princess phones covered in chocolate suede... ::)
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

paul-f

I'm looking forward to seeing the after photos -- after you get the suede applied to each phone -- stitching and all!

You take on some of the most interesting projects, D/P.  If anyone can do it, I'm sure it's you!
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