Telephone Book Service Limited. Toronto, Canada (1929 era Cabinet)

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Telephone Book Service Limited. Toronto, Canada  (1929 Shelf)

I found this ad on Kijiji a free local classified site.

"Telephone Collectible"

Solid walnut wall hanging telephone directory cabinet. Shelf drops down to expose telephone book. Overhead metal light shade. Cabinet #1275, patented in 1929 by Toronto Book Service. Rare piece and very unusual offering. Cabinet in "as found" condition. More photos available on request.

So I enquried about the shelf.

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Additional photos as requested showing the lamp shade and original brass tray pull, back of cabinet showing hanging brackets, hardware (both sides) to support the tray in down position, inside glass cracked and needs replacing and sample view of mitred corners all are tight.

I have had this cabinet for 25 or 30 years but never tried to sell it until now.

As advertised, my price is $50.00 plus $20.00 shipping costs.
Yes I will accept your offer of $65.00.
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Some of the stickers on the glass shows the old style phone numbers. Two of the stickers show the Village of Swansea. I googled it and here it what I found.

Swansea, Village in City of Toronto, Canada

Swansea is a neighbourhood in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, bounded on the west by the Humber River, on the north by Bloor Street, on the east by High Park and on the south by Lake Ontario.

I couldn't find anything on the other sticker from Roselawn Dairy Store.

Has anyone seen this type of shelf before? I have 9 pictures that Paul sent me, so I'll put them in two posts. The shelf is in the mail as of today, when I get it I will post more pictures.

Doug

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Post # 2

[Sargeguy]

Pretty cool-excellent way to display old telephone books and ephemera.  Do you plan to re-finish the outside?

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It came in the mail on Monday. As we all know, the Post Office and fragile packages do not mix. The glass needed replacing anyway so it's not a big deal and there was no damage to the cabinet. The advertising stickers where damaged a little, I'll try and salvage them. I'm plan to having a professional refinish the outside of the cabinet only. The metal light housing will also need to be restored. It has remnants of a copper coating on it. I think it would look good chromed. I can not find any information on the company or the cabinet, I'm stumped. Any ideas? I put my 1937 Toronto telephone book in it and it fits perfectly.

Doug

[Mr. Bones]

The metal light housing will also need to be restored. It has remnants of a copper coating on it. I think it would look good chromed. I can not find any information on the company or the cabinet, I'm stumped. Any ideas? I put my 1937 Toronto telephone book in it and it fits perfectly.

Doug

Doug, you have a beautiful find there, congrats! I am certain I am not the only one envious. Nice score!

Ideas? You want ideas? I got a few...

Re: chrome plating on the light fixture, were it me that had it, I would likely seek out the nickel plating expertise of dencins, here on the list. Personally I prefer the warmth of nickel, vs. the 'bling" of chrome.

I'd probably stick with the white paint,( likely an eggshell, or less glossy) finish inside of the fixture, to make the light thrown more diffuse, as intended.

I'd also put in one of the retro Edison type bulbs available, to throw warm, vintage light on the nice phone book. Feit, and many others make these in a variety of wattages, lumens, element patterns, and shapes/sizes. Shop around, find a good deal.

Just my thoughts...

Looking forward to seeing your restoration, so please keep pics coming as you progress.

Best regards!

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Thanks Mr. Bones

I like the nickel Idea and the paint was a given, Now the Edison bulb is a awesome idea. I think I can make that happen.
While I was doing some research on the "Telephone Book Service Limited" and found out that 57 Bloor St. West is at the intersection of Bloor and Bay Streets. I come across some interesting pictures of the intersection over time starting at the year 1929 the patent year of the cabinet. The company would have been in this area around the time of the first picture.

1) June 1929

2) early 1970's

3) Approx. 2010

But still no information on the company.

After looking at the pictures again, I realized that the picture from the 70's has the actual building where the company was located at some point in time.

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Dropped the cabinet off at a restorer today. He quoted me $85.00 to $100.00 CDN to refinish the outside of the cabinet. I gave him the go ahead. He said he would call me when it was stripped, so I could take pictures before he refinished it. He also said that he had never seen one of these before and that it was a very nice piece.

Doug

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Got the cabinet back today. The fuzzy spots in the pictures are from the scratched lens on my camera.

[Ktownphoneco]

That looks really nice Doug !    What a difference.

Jeff

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Thanks Jeff,

I was going to have the lamp shade repaired and then have it plated, but the cost was going to be to high. It needs to be welded where someone cut it to remove the pull chain. If they only knew what they were doing. I think I'll spray paint it after I have the cut welded. (I wish I had your paint booth in my garage) LOL. I still have to get a pane of glass and a socket with light. All in due time. I will take the advertising sheet to Quik Copy. I'll get them to scan it, I'll clean up the water stains, then have them make a copy that will have no stains. I'll leave the original behind the copy for safe keeping.

Doug

[Ktownphoneco]

A good gas welder should be able to bang the curl out of the cut and braze it closed without too much difficulty.    The shade will look fine painted I think.      Post some pictures once it's all finished.

Jeff

[NorthernElectric]

I was going to have the lamp shade repaired and then have it plated, but the cost was going to be to high.

You didn't say how much the plating was going to cost so I don't know how much is 'too high'.  But here is a reasonably priced DIY solution that might be worth looking into:  Plug N' Plate Nickel Kit .  I haven't tried this, but I have a brassed out candlestick that I have been thinking of nickel plating.  Might be worth looking into.

I will take the advertising sheet to Quik Copy. I'll get them to scan it, I'll clean up the water stains, then have them make a copy that will have no stains. I'll leave the original behind the copy for safe keeping.

Instead of reproducing the ad sheet, why not find some period ads, print them off and put them behind the glass.  There's tons of that sort of thing scanned on the web.

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I was going to have the lamp shade repaired and then have it plated, but the cost was going to be to high.

You didn't say how much the plating was going to cost so I don't know how much is 'too high'.  But here is a reasonably priced DIY solution that might be worth looking into:  Plug N' Plate Nickel Kit .  I haven't tried this, but I have a brassed out candlestick that I have been thinking of nickel plating.  Might be worth looking into.

I will take the advertising sheet to Quik Copy. I'll get them to scan it, I'll clean up the water stains, then have them make a copy that will have no stains. I'll leave the original behind the copy for safe keeping.

Instead of reproducing the ad sheet, why not find some period ads, print them off and put them behind the glass.  There's tons of that sort of thing scanned on the web.

Cliff

Good idea on the plating, but that would a one shot deal and I don't want to screw it up. If you decide to do it yourself post some pictures of how it turns out. There is no one around here that I know of the does plating. I would have to send the shade out to be repaired and plated and I have no idea what that would cost. I would rather keep the shade at arms length. If it gets lost, I wouldn't be able to replace it. Painting it can be reversed if I decide to have it plated in the future.

Finding ads on line and putting them on the copied cleaned up ad template, I did think of that. Great minds think alike. The reason for copying the template is to preserve it by sticking ads to the copied one, not the original one.

Doug

[Ktownphoneco]

I've used the "brush on" plating system for small things, like repairing a nickel plated knurled thumb turn for clamping a transmitter on a desk stand that was starting to brass out.      But anything bigger will require a lot of the solution packaged in small amounts in a "Brush-N-Plate" or "Plug-N-Plate" kit.      The nickel particles are held in solution in the plating liquid that ships with the kit, and it depletes rather quickly.      One kit is $52.00, and as I mentioned, it doesn't go far.      Caswell is an American company, with a Canadian warehouse and on-line store.
Here's a link to Caswell's Canadian web site and the page dealing with the various "Plug-N-Plate" kits they sell.     This link brings up the page dealing with the nickel kit, but the explanation is pretty much generic and covers the procedure for all "Plu-N-Plate kits.
Link to Caswell Site : http://www.caswellcanada.ca/shop/plug-n-plate-nickel-kit.html

Jeff Lamb   

[Stubbypylon]

Doug,

I had one of these but sold it a couple of years ago.  Behind the glass would be advertisements (not stickers on the front).  I like the idea of making a collage of old advertisements you can find on the web.  I would paint the lamp shade as that would be more original than plating.   The shade top can also be used to store a candlestick phone.