HEAVY BROWN ANTIQUE ANSWER ONLY HOTEL TELEPHONE PROP

[Doug Rose]

I bought this Manual 302 on eBay a few days ago. Base is dated 9/41 throughout, the handset elements are 5/41. I have never seen an F1 with no markings under the grip. It hasn't been sanded down, just nothing there. I thought I had seen everything. Its filthy but in working condition.

I showed Janet the box when it arrived and asked her what she thought  about the condition of the phone inside. I shook the box the phone rattled around. Handset is tough as the middle was sticking right out of the top of the box laying across the face of the phone, nothing in between. One sheet of paper around the side. Worst packing I have ever seen, but this is built like a tank. Seller stated it was brown and not metal. Well, he can't pack either....Doug

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140520370880&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
( dead link 06-22-21 )

[Dennis Markham]

Interesting, Doug.  I've never seen a naked F1 before either.

The way it looks in the eBay listing looks blue to me.  Probably taken under fluorescent lighting with no color correction in the camera.  Still, a good price.

[Doug Rose]

Dennis...I never seen one not marked F1. No Western Electric, no Bell System. Its very different, Heavy and solid.

Hopefully Paul F will let us know what I found. $14 for a working 70 year old phone with good cloth cords was a deal...Doug

[GG]

I can make out the vague outline of a rectangle on the handset handle. 

It's possible that the handset was buffed at some point in its history, removing the Bell & WE logos but leaving some of the rectangular outline. 

[mariepr]

I can make out the vague outline of a rectangle on the handset handle. 

It's possible that the handset was buffed at some point in its history, removing the Bell & WE logos but leaving some of the rectangular outline. 

It's possible that it may have been buffed but one would have to use some pretty abrasive compounds to get it down this far.  More likely, it was a miss-stamp that got through the WE QC inspectors.  Something akin to the double strike or off-center struck coin that the mint doesn't catch.

[Dennis Markham]

Of course I don't know about this particular handset but I have seen others, usually F1's of color that had their logos ground away.  This would have been in the day when the phones belonged to the phone company.  A collector friend of mine has at least one and believed the logo had been intentionally ground out to eliminate the ownership question.  Perhaps more conjecture.

[wds]

I have an E1 handset, and the Western Electric stamp has been rubbed out.  I was told that anytime a WE handset was used by a phone company not affiliated with WE, that they were required to rub out the WE name. 

[Sargeguy]

Could it have been surplus Bell System stock?  Western Electric marked the non-Bell System F-1s with a "W".  I suspect that there was a Bell System logo that had to be removed for whatever reason.

[Doug Rose]

Definitely not rubbed out, this is just flithy. There is nothing there, straight as an arrow. No crevices at all.....Doug

[HarrySmith]

So you were the one who outbid me
I saw that and thought why not, I do not have a manual 302 and the price was good but I missed the end. Good Score and an interesting handset.

[Doug Rose]

So you were the one who outbid me
I saw that and thought why not, I do not have a manual 302 and the price was good but I missed the end. Good Score and an interesting handset.

Harry....I am a bottom feeder, it was metal, even though the seller said it wasn't and the price was right. I was pleasantly surprised the dates matched. Happier with the handset. $23 for a 70 year old phone is what a bottom feeder thrives on....take care......Doug

[HarrySmith]

Matching dates and metal too! What a deal!
If you are a bottom feeder than I am a below ground feeder! I put in first bid on every 99 cent phone thats gets put up! I own a few 99 cent 500's as a result!

[K1WI]

     I have two handsets like yours. One brown and one black. I was told that they were Northern Electric and made for "non subscriber use".  such as military or large institutions that did not connect to the outside world.  No way to verify that , but the person that gave  me that information always seemed to be correct.
    Andy   K1WI

[Doug Rose]

     I have two handsets like yours. One brown and one black. I was told that they were Northern Electric and made for "non subscriber use".  such as military or large institutions that did not connect to the outside world.  No way to verify that , but the person that gave  me that information always seemed to be correct.
    Andy   K1WI

Hey Andy....looks just like mine. My set is what I feel is an untouched Western, but who knows. Glad to see there is another out there, I wasn't buying the grind down theory on this...many thanks....Doug

[K1WI]

Doug.
    The brown "unlabeled" F1 came with a a 302 that was actually gold plated. It wasin use at the office of the director of a very large what at the time was reffered to as a sanitarium . Today we would call it a mental hospital. Closed sometime in the late 1970s.  (This was in the US  (NewYork State) Not quite sure why Northern was the supplier.
    The handset definately was not ground down or sanded.

     Andy   (K1WI)