Vas ist das?

[Greg G.]

And don't say "it's a wall phone".

[bingster]

Uhmm... It's a "vertical surface mounted telephonic device."

Just kidding... It's an apartment telephone.  They could be had with or without a dial for manual or dial service.  The upper telephone portion is a standard item, but the nifty thing is the box at the bottom which had one, two, or three buttons mounted on the right hand side (you can't see them in the photo).  One button rang the apartment manager, another rang the janitor, and the third was used to unlock the front door in buildings that had secured entrances (if a visitor pushed the outside call button for your apartment, it rang the phone, you picked up the phone to see who it was, and if you wanted to see the person, you pushed the door release button on the side of the lower box to let him in).

Here's the other side:
http://www.telephonearchive.com/phones/assets/we/we-apartment/we_apartment_gg.jpg

[Greg G.]

Cool!  Era - 1930s?  Can a dial be installed?

[bingster]

They were probably installed from the early 1920s through the 1930s.  Many probably remained in service for decades.  Absolutely, you can pop a dial in there.  The dial blank that's in there now is easily removable, and a dial will fit right in making it very usable.

[Bill]

Of course, you'd have to mount it other end up, so the receiver would hang correctly. On the other hand, I believe the vintage flashlight was a rare but valuable option.

Bill

[Phonesrfun]

Definitely a dial can be added.  And, by the way, it's a wall phone, in case you haven't noticed.

Seriously, I have one of these guys, and mine came without the dial, and I added a dial to mine. 

This is a standard Bell System phone mounted to a wooden backboard for apartment use.  The box below has buttons and a switch.  The switch switches the phone back and forth between being hooked to the outside central office and being hooked to the apartment intercom.  The buttons typically are for "Manager" and "Front Door", and one other button that dould have been for the boiler room or something else.

[Greg G.]

Of course, you'd have to mount it other end up, so the receiver would hang correctly. On the other hand, I believe the vintage flashlight was a rare but valuable option.

Bill

I was wondering about that flashlight.  EGADS!  Maybe they turned it into a LAMP!

[Greg G.]

I finally got ahold of them.  $200 asking price, functioning phone.  The flashlight is only attached by a magnet.

[Greg G.]

Definitely a dial can be added.  And, by the way, it's a wall phone, in case you haven't noticed.

Seriously, I have one of these guys, and mine came without the dial, and I added a dial to mine. 

Bill, got a picture of yours?  If $200 is a reasonable asking price, I may try to get this one.

[Phonesrfun]

The phone in question is a WE 653 that was basically built from a 634 subset by adding a transmitter, receiver, hookswitch, and dial.  See Ralph Meyer's book pages 75 and 245.  In this case it is mounted on the hotel wall phone backboard and has the switch box below.

Based on the price of the basic phone without the backboard listed in Ralph's book, $200 probably is a fair price, but no reason why you could not try to offer less to start.

Here is a picture of mine.

[Greg G.]

The phone in question is a WE 653 that was basically built from a 634 subset by adding a transmitter, receiver, hookswitch, and dial.  See Ralph Meyer's book pages 75 and 245.  In this case it is mounted on the hotel wall phone backboard and has the switch box below.

Based on the price of the basic phone without the backboard listed in Ralph's book, $200 probably is a fair price, but no reason why you could not try to offer less to start.

Here is a picture of mine.

Thanks.  Of course, Ralph's book, I forgot I had a copy.  I always try to dicker at least some. 

[Greg G.]

I got to thinking about this phone again.  The ad is no longer on CL, but I still had a print out of it.  Called them, they still have it and still interested in selling it.  Lady said they just never got around to reposting the ad.  I'm going to go try to take a look at it within the next few days.

[AET]

Your carpeting looks like ours

[Greg G.]

Your carpeting looks like ours

You scared me for a second, I thought you were peeping in my window!  That's Bill's (Phonesrfun) carpeting, not mine.

[AET]

No, that was directed at Bill haha.