My first rotary princess!

[Kenton K]

I just got my first rotary princess! I'm not sure how I've never snagged one by now. I do have a 10 button green, but no rotary version. It's a hardwired black refurbed in 72. Fun!

[b3tamax11]

Very Nice! I believe black is one of the harder to find colours for a Princess set.

[Kenton K]

Really? Huh. I would have thought black would be a pretty standard color, like the 500 sets. I actually talked the seller down because it was black. "Black is nothing special". Go figure.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Really? Huh. I would have thought black would be a pretty standard color, like the 500 sets. I actually talked the seller down because it was black. "Black is nothing special". Go figure.

Black was a standard color. Unlike most models at the time, Princesses did not cost extra in color. Because a Black set would have been considered a ripoff, customers usually strayed away from 'boring old black', especially if it cost the same as a set they could have in a decorator color. The odds of someone choosing black over color for the same price was obviously pretty low, like in the case of your phone!

And yes, black is probably one of the rarest common colors among Princesses. Even Turquoise is several times more common than black! Congrats on a nice phone!

[jsowers]

When first introduced, the Princess was only available in pastels--pink, aqua blue, turquoise, light beige and white. After three years, when the 702 like you just got replaced the 701, they added colors to the palette like black, green, light gray and yellow, and in 1967 they introduced red and ivory.

I have an ivory 702 next to my bed and it's one of my favorite phones to use. The bell is pleasant and not as jarring as a 500 set would be. Lately with 10-digit dialing its dial has gotten a workout. And more than one telemarketer has heard the slam of its handset.

[Dan/Panther]

I have the 0riginal 9 basic colors, BLACK was the last one I found, and it came from a CRPF member. It took me 7 years to collect them.
Dan

[Doug Rose]

The "Legend" of Black for a Princess that I heard was Jackie Kennedy wanted Black for the White House and WE made it. Nothing to verify it, just what I had heard....Doug

[TelePlay]

There has only been one black in the auction contests, Auction Contest #35, and that one was a not quite apples to apples 10 button TT but given the sale date, 2009, it fetched a handsome price at $260. I would think a black rotary would match or exceed that price, IMHO, of course.

It also seems black trimline phones are fewer in quantity than their colored counterparts.

[Kenton K]

I think black is a very elegant color. It never looks out of place. I also love dark gray.. I wonder if there were any dark gray princesses?

Kk

[jsowers]

I think black is a very elegant color. It never looks out of place. I also love dark gray.. I wonder if there were any dark gray princesses?

Kk

There was -293 Slate Blue that's almost dark gray. It came along very late, in the 1980s. You can see it here, second full row from the top on the right.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=14183.msg169248#msg169248

[unbeldi]

Black was a standard color. Unlike most models at the time, Princesses did not cost extra in color. Because a Black set would have been considered a ripoff, customers usually strayed away from 'boring old black', especially if it cost the same as a set they could have in a decorator color. The odds of someone choosing black over color for the same price was obviously pretty low, like in the case of your phone!

And yes, black is probably one of the rarest common colors among Princesses. Even Turquoise is several times more common than black! Congrats on a nice phone!

Black was a new Princess color for the 702-type in 1963, but it was not a promoted color, together with gray–61.  The reason for this is not clear, perhaps it didn't fit the marketing concepts, who knows...  Black 500 sets were still produced with CAB Tenite plastic housings in 1963, but the thinner housing of the Princess required ABS.  Tenite was not sufficiently impact-resistant. Even the ABS housings fracture quite easily at the left and right ends.  So perhaps the need for two processes for black sets was a reason, but it cannot explain that gray was also not promoted, as gray housings were produced in ABS since 1959 for 500 sets.

More about black Princesses history:  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=10250.0

[Jim Stettler]

There were some early princess phones made in tenite.  I used to have a "59 or '60 in red tenite. I have heard of others.

With collecting Bell System sets you can always find some  "exceptions" to the "official" sets. The tenite princess phones (and tenite 302's) are some of the exceptions.

JMO,
Jim S.

[unbeldi]

There were some early princess phones made in tenite.  I used to have a "59 or '60 in red tenite. I have heard of others.

With collecting Bell System sets you can always find some  "exceptions" to the "official" sets. The tenite princess phones (and tenite 302's) are some of the exceptions.

JMO,
Jim S.

Indeed the Princess prototype material (until mid/late 1959) was Tenite, and I think we discussed somewhere here that the breakage may well have been one of the reasons that all color sets, 700 and 500, were switched to ABS plastics because of the requirement for the Princesses, amongst the problems with staining.

But for 302s there were no exceptions, they were all made of Tenite after metal was discontinued in 1941.  It was a different type of Tenite, though, Tenite Acetate.  The only exception for 302s was in 1955, and perhaps for 307s until 1957, when some were available in Tenite Butyrate (cellulose acetate butyrate ,CAB), since they stopped making the old colors in 1954.

Red-53 Princesses were not part of the lineup until 1967, with ivory.

[Kenton K]

Oh my, how complicated. I soft princess sounds lovely. I always found soft plastics to be 'softer'. The colors seemed more translucent. Less harsh. Or its just me romanticizing the scarcity.

KK

[paul-f]

The "Legend" of Black for a Princess that I heard was Jackie Kennedy wanted Black for the White House and WE made it. Nothing to verify it, just what I had heard....Doug

Russ Cowell researched this rumor and reported his findings in the December 2012 TCI Singing Wires.