Butt Set from Flea Market

[LarryInMichigan]

I went to a local (~15 miles away) semi-annual flea market this morning and was rather disappointed at the selection.  The flea market is supposed to be for antiques, but there wasn't much interesting.  On my way out, I spotted an unmarked butt set.  Feeling like I should buy something while I was there, offered the seller $15, and he countered with $20.  I offered $18, hoping that he would say "no", and I could leave without the butt set, which I didn't really want anyway, but while I was in the next booth, he told me that he would take $18, so now I have an ugly butt set which I don't really want (I never collected butt sets).

The body appears to be aluminum.  There are no manufacturer markings that I can find, but there is a "D-" number printed on the receiver coil, so I am guessing that it was made by Kellogg.  The dial appears to be AE.  There are small buttons on both sides near the receiver, one with a 'C' next to it and the other with 'R'.  I briefly connected the set to my phone line, and the receiver and transmitter work.  The receiver is the metal diaphragm type with a bakelite cover.

Does anyone know who made this thing, how old it might be, and what it is worth?


Larry

[LarryInMichigan]

Here is a picture of the internals.  Interestingly, the transmitter is the old candlestick type, but the wiring is vinyl covered.

[Doug Rose]

Larry...Its an Automatic Electric. They also made them for WE which usually has a #4 inside, but sometime a #2 would be lurking. #5 and #6 dials would not fit. Very cool Butt set....Doug

[LarryInMichigan]

Larry...Its an Automatic Electric. They also made them for WE which usually has a #4 inside, but sometime a #2 would be lurking. #5 and #6 dials would not fit. Very cool Butt set....Doug

Thank you.  That would explain why the dial appears to be rotated with respect to the handle.  A WE dial would have the correct orientation.  I would still like to know what the deal is with the old-fashioned transmitter but vinyl wiring.  Perhaps it was refurbished, and the dial and wiring were replaced.

Larry

[GG]

AE made these through the late 1950s at least, and possibly into the early 60s.  They were superseded by the more familiar one in red plastic with the 3" AE dial.

A later unit would have plastic-covered wiring as you see there.  Though, if that's truly a solid-back transmitter, that is a really strange combination.  I'm going to guess mid 1950s based on the plastic-covered wiring plus the dial mechanism being painted black.

It is possible that the dial mounting may be designed such that it can be mounted in a number of different orientations, so you can get it back to the familiar orientation as seen in other WE and AE test handsets.

Definitely worth hanging on to, though if you want to keep it as a trade item to swap for something else, don't alter anything. 

[paul-f]

For reference here's a link to the similar WE models:

http://www.paul-f.com/weHandsets.html#Dspec

and photos of the follow-on AE models... (2 generations)

[LarryInMichigan]

I see from Paul's web page that my set is a D-81760, except that it has an AE dial.  Perhaps someone swapped out the more valuable WE dial.

Thank You

Larry