Great Day at the Flea Market!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I went to the flea market today, expecting to not find much. I was pretty wrong!

The first is a double-sided GTE sign. I thought it was porcelain at first, but it turns out to be paper glued to stainless steel. After I bought it, I feared it was a repro of some kind, but after looking closer at the paper, and noticing tiny checks all over, my fears faded. The paper is also very fragile, and is easy to break into small pieces. I paid $45 for it.

The next looks like a nice old box, but look closer...it has a stamped Western Electric badge on the side! I'm thinking about using paint stripper on everything except the two sides marked WE...I will probably use a block sander of some kind to remove the paint around the logo, and leave the paint in the logo intact, followed by stain and possibly varnish. I got it for $35, thanks to my Mom's gift of haggling!

Just as we were about to leave, I noticed a candlestick on the edge of a table filled with chandeliers and glassware. It looked pretty typical...later receiver, bulldog transmitter...but I noticed the exposed fingerstop, and had to take a look! I was excited, until I saw the price tag sitting next to it--$250. The vendor walked over to me and told me that he lowered the price to $150. I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough!

Other than the dial card and plastic retainer, it looks like nothing has changed on this phone since a 1939 refurb. The original Japanned finish seems to be perfectly intact, other than an old light repaint that is still visible on the top of the shaft. It should clean up nicely!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Candlestick:

[AL_as_needed]

You lucky devil you  .... only "haul" I ended up with today was 200$ worth or groceries.... Nice find on the candle stick, love the sign!

[tallguy58]

No notch looks like.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I finally got the candlestick finished! (almost) I used 0000 steel wool on everything, followed by polish, followed by wax. The paint is in very good shape--it turned out much better than I thought it would!

The felt on the base plate is in extremely bad shape, and will need to be replaced. The dial card retainer was a plastic '60s version, and will be replaced with a correct brass one. The receiver is a later H1 type, but was most likely installed when the phone was updated to anti-sidetone in the '40s.

[Pourme]

Nice looking piece, Christian! Correct me if I'm wrong, the bulldog transmitter and the receiver were likely replaced as a upgrade in the 40's?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Nice looking piece, Christian! Correct me if I'm wrong, the bulldog transmitter and the receiver were likely replaced as a upgrade in the 40's?

Correct. The transmitter is dated 1946, and the receiver element is dated 1939. The rest of the phone was probably built in the late '20s

[HarrySmith]

Nice! Great looking stick!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Nice! Great looking stick!

Thanks, Harry!