What kind of phone is this?

[tallguy58]

Can anyone please ID this phone?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Wood-Wall-Telephone-Complete-/271547240403

[wds]

Looks like a wood wall ae telephone that has been messed with.  Someone tried to remove the original black paint, added then removed a push botton on the front.  But more importantly, the seller is in Waldo Ohio, not far from me - it's a small one red light town which is home to the Baloney Sandwich.  I used to drive up there just to get on of those fried sandwiches - pretty good.

[rdelius]

Automatic Electric. these were normally black paint over wood.They are hard to get looking good if you try to strip off the paint and refinish

[poplar1]

The earliest dial Automatic Electric phones had a pushbutton for ringing: After dialing the number, you pressed the button to ring the called party. Later changes in the central office equipment design made the button unnecessary.

Is it possible that this phone had a pushbutton when first manufactured?

[wds]

I did notice the switchhook has an extra set of contacts.  Wonder why the extra condenser?

[stub]

 wds,
          Extra cap was for ground ringing.   stub

[AE_Collector]

The AE wall phone that followed the Strowger 11 digit 1905 phone once they changed to the Mercedes dial from the big Strowger dial. There seems to be a surprising number of them around though frequently the Mercedes dial has been removed and replaced with a newer type 24, 24A36 or 51.

From what I have seen these phones seemed to only be in black. They rarely did a wood finish but rather painted wooden phones black to match the many black metal and Bakelite phones that they produced.

Terry

[wds]

Here's another phone for sale that still has the button - the phone has other issues, but I find the button to be very interesting.  I think this is the first time I've seen this phone with that button, now two of them in the same week.