Just won this. Gray handset cord?

[AET]

I was the high bidder on this and wanted to share with the group. 

http://tinyurl.com/yk2vzus ( dead link 08-09-21 )

Tom, I went to the liberty of adding the eBay photos here on the posting.  Since now days eBay gets rid of them so quickly, we'll have them here to reference.
~Dennis

[Dan/Panther]

I'm not sure but I think you got a good deal. Dennis recently bought one. I think ?
D/P

[AET]

I hope it was a good deal.  My top dollar was 30.  It's a shame shipping's such a killer. I have been watching it all week and didn't have an Imperial and my room's looking pretty 500-ish.  I think it'll be a fun one, just need a subset for it.  

[bellsystemproperty]

I think you can operate it without a subset for the time being, but it won't ring and there will be excessive sidetone. I remember at the phone show they were selling subsets.

[Dennis Markham]

I think you got a good buy on that phone Tom.  I had been watching it but didn't bid.  I have had a gold one for some time but have been looking for a better one.  You may be able to find another Ivory handset down the road, either painted or an Ivory plastic one.  Those Imperials often go in the $75 range for nice ones.  There was another that sold recently and it went pretty low too.  I think in the $40 range but the paint on the handset had some issues as well.  The one I have has a real nice Ivory (plastic) handset but there is some streaking under the gold finish.

You really should connect this through an induction coil rather than wire it directly to the phone line.  We have talked about it here before.  I think someone post instructions how how to connect it to a model 500 network so that you can use it. 

[AET]

I probably won't hook it up until I am in my new apartment so that will give me plenty of time to get a subscriber set. In the meantime, I am very excited about this phone. I'm assuming a standard 202 subset will work.

[McHeath]

Nice deal Tom, I think it's a good buy.  You can paint that handset I suppose, if the worn look bothers you.  I've seen people put small networks into these phones so they don't need a subset, but the subset is much cooler in my opinion. 

[LarryInMichigan]

It looks like a really good deal to me.  Once you strip off the nasty paint, it should look great.  

[bingster]

I'd definitely repaint the handset, too.  The cord looks to be a black cord that's gone moldy (they do that when they're stored), but it should clean up fine, and of course, you can get a new ivory cloth cord for it if the black cord bothers you.  You can even use an ivory or light beige coiled cord on it. 

[dsk]

I think that one should be a nice one, when you have done a lot of cleaning and painting.

I am kind of glanced at  (I hop this is the right words in English) these sets with subset.
I don't believe this has been used commercially in Norway ever.

How far back in time did they make transparent dials. (We were late at that, 1967 i believe).

dsk

[Dennis Markham]

I have added three of the eBay photos to the top of this posting. 

I don't think this phone would have been released with the black handset cord.  The ones that I have seen either have a cloth Ivory coiled or the vinyl Ivory coiled cords.

[jsowers]

Tom, if you replace the handset cord, be sure to look for one that doesn't have the big strain relief at the handset end. That piece won't go through the hole on the handset without some surgery. I just went through that on a Continental, which is the green painted refurbished 202. I replaced the cord that came on it--a replaced green 64 WE coil cord--with a green cloth cord that looks great. You can get fabric cords that hook right up and have the correct hardware on both ends. I don't have the details, but you can PM Dennis and he can send you the info.

All that being said, if you wanted to get by with what you have, just removing the paint from the handset would give you a gold 202 with a black handset and that wouldn't look at all bad. They later did that combination with Princess phones--gold with a black handset and cords.

To answer d_s_k's question about the clear Lucite fingerwheels, I think 1940 may be the earliest I've ever heard of that. That's when the clear 302 was first made and displayed at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. But Tom's phone probably dates to around 1955. The capsules in the handset probably date to around then. That seems to be the time these were all refurbished and installed, or at least that's how it looks from our brief canvass of the forum users.

I also wanted to point out something kind of funny. The bottom of this phone has not only the sticker from when it was bought, it has the instructions that tell the owner to peel it off. All with little Bell logos on it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I rarely see an Imperial with one of those stickers on it. The picture of the bottom is below, FYI...

[Dennis Markham]

Jonathan, to me when I read that label,  the bottom portion is telling how to apply the label to the telephone.  The top portion looks like it reads "Proper placement of the label to the base of the purchased Bell telephone set is proof of ownership and should NOT be removed".  I think the cork pad obscures the word NOT.

It may have a perforated edge and the bottom portion was not intended to be applied to he phone.  I think those are instructions were for the Bell employee at the time of the sale, telling him/her how to apply the upper portion of the sticker.

Nonetheless now that you point out the label it does have a historical value and would be worth keeping it there.  Usually those labels are the smaller ones that we often find on the bottom of the model 500's.

[AET]

Well, I am just thrilled that it was a good find.  It's been a great couple of days!

[JimH]

Tom, I have an Ivory Continental that came with the paint on the earpiece badly scuffed and crinkled.  I looked all over for paint that would match the rest of the handset, without repainting the whole handset.  I finally found a perfect match at Murray's Auto Parts, a color called "Santa Fe Tan" that is a Van & Truck paint from Dupli-color.  It's a bigger 11 oz. can, and I also painted a whole handset with it, and it looks exactly like the original color.  You can then rub it down with Novus #2 for a perfectly smooth shine.  I cannot tell the difference.  I agree that you should leave that label!  It's Bell System History!