Help! What Did I Buy - Part II

[Dennis Markham]

My second purchase appears to be  an Automatic Electric wall phone.

The dial is an AE Dial and marked 21D.  There is some more printing on the back of the dial but I'd have to remove it in order to read it.

The switch arm is missing and the switch inside has a screw missing.  All of the parts may not be present.

The box is in overall good condition.  On the back of the box it has been autographed twice.  "Don" signed it on January 08, 1933 (two years to the day before Elvis was born).  It looks like "Chub" signed it by writing 66 RRU, 5-11-1937. 

It looks like there is one of those phone book hooks on the lower right hand corner.  The paint on the sides is really in nice shape.  The cover paint is a little rough but it's all there.

The chrome finger wheel is in suspiciously excellent condition as is the dial card and celluloid. 

I bought both of these from an old antiques store in a small rural town about 30 miles away.  The guy has six or eight wooden wall phones and a few others similar to this in addition to a 3 slot pay phone and a couple other desk sets...like an AE40.  I think I saw a Leich there too.  The place is a dump but the old guy sits inside with his cigar.  He's only open from Noon to 3:00PM, every day but Sunday.  The place is for sale.  I was there last summer and pretty much saw the same things there then.  I got them both for less than he wanted for one.  But I don't really have any idea of the value of the deal.

Thanks for looking.  Comments are welcome!

[Phonesrfun]

Definitely AE.  I have one just like it.

-Bill Geurts

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks Bill, how difficult do you think it will be to find the missing parts?  Do you know the model number??

[Phonesrfun]

Dennis:

It is an AE type 21 Wall set.  Take a look at the TCI technical page at:
http://telephonecollectors.org/library/aeco/aeco.htm

and you can readily identify it, due to the oval raised area on the front of the can.  I am sure as plentiful as AE was, the parts should be pretty easy to come by.  If you post a thing on the ATCA and TCI listservers, someone is bound to have what you need.  Unfortunately, I have no earlier AE parts, myself.

-Bill Geurts

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks Bill for the info.  I thought that eventually I'll post a wanted on both of the List Serves.  I'd like to get them both spruced up.  They're neat phones.  The ringers look like straight line ringers, but I'm not certain about that.  The area where I bought them probably had an Independent phone company back in their day.  Many of the phones I see there are either A.E. 40's or Leich.

[Phonesrfun]

Dennis:

Just hook the ringer up in series through the condenser across your line and test it to see if it is straight line and rings.  Your ringer looks identical to the one in mine.

-Bill Geurts

[Dennis Markham]

Will-do Bill, thank you.

~Dennis