Ivory Western Electric

[poplar1]

-4 (Dash 4) Ivory was one of the original colors for B1 and D1 handset mountings and later for 302s. In 1953, it was one of the original 4 new colors for 500s and was given the color code -50. The early -4 Ivory sets--including painted metal 302s--are darker. Here are some recently listed ivory sets.

1--early 102/202
2--9/40 302
3-- 202 remanufactured 7/54

[Gilas]

I grabbed the one in your first picture the other day.  Should be here in the next couple of days. 

[jsowers]

Here is -50 ivory for comparison. From a NOS 3-59 554, so there's no fading to skew the color. There is some reflection, so look at the areas without reflection for the true color. Also a picture of an ivory 1-56 500 with its matching straight handset cord.

[unbeldi]

Here is -50 ivory for comparison. From a NOS 3-59 554, so there's no fading to skew the color. There is some reflection, so look at the areas without reflection for the true color. Also a picture of an ivory 1-56 500 with its matching straight handset cord.

IMHO, both of those pictures don't reflect what the WeCo 500-series (-50) ivory color actually looks like in normal day light. The 500 set is too white, and the 554 too dark/gray (not sure what to call that color). If I only saw that picture without explanation, I wouldn't call it ivory.

I am going to try a color correction:

PS: After viewing, I think that comes closer, both images had a color cast on them. You can use picture areas that have a known neutral composition to recalibrate each picture.  In the 500 set, the grey carpet is fairly good, and the background textile of the 554 helps, as I suspect it is fairly white.  The result: both phones look almost the same in color tone.

[unbeldi]

-4 (Dash 4) Ivory was one of the original colors for B1 and D1 handset mountings and later for 302s. In 1953, it was one of the original 4 new colors for 500s and was given the color code -50. The early -4 Ivory sets--including painted metal 302s--are darker. Here are some recently listed ivory sets.

1--early 102/202
2--9/40 302
3-- 202 remanufactured 7/54

Depite that this phone looked quite original, with those silk cords and all, I was somewhat skeptical about the paint job, because it just looks so saturated yellow almost, French Vanilla, rather than ivory.

I am curios whether this is simply because of the age of the paint or poor lighting or poor camera. Many paints before 1940 were based on oils, like linseed oil, which has a deep yellow color. It seems to me, that WeCo would have relabeled the color code for the later 302-era finishes that really looked a lot less intense. The Tenite plastic 302s are the "whitest" of them all.

[poplar1]

The 302 shown is also a darker ivory. This seems to be typical of early ivory sets. Whether it is intentional or just chemical changes in the paint, you're the expert on that. Here are more pictures of the same 302 dated 9-40; nothing to indicate it's not original other than the black number card holder.

[poplar1]

Ivory 202 from 1937:

[unbeldi]

Here is my version of an ivory 500-series display:

An April'55 500DR-50, and a Feb'57 554BR-50, both original Tenite Butyrate plastic, cords are later.

[unbeldi]

The 302 shown is also a darker ivory. This seems to be typical of early ivory sets. Whether it is intentional or just chemical changes in the paint, you're the expert on that. Here are more pictures of the same 302 dated 9-40; nothing to indicate it's not original other than the black number card holder.

There may indeed be a trend to lighter colors historically. I think you are right that the 30s ivories all were more saturated. For ivory, aging seems to always imply darkening, and not fading.

[unbeldi]

The plastic 302s usually vary widely in tone, depending on age and usage. But usually they can be brought back to almost the virgin ivory by bleaching and sanding. There are three of them in here.
Altogether we have:
top row: Metal 304 1947 (repainted), Tenite 1952 (302), 1950 (304), and 1953 (304)
bottom: ~1955 202 and a 1955 500.

The metal 302 (upper left) was a touch lighter when I got it, but in rough shape, I used a commonly available ivory spray paint (Rustoleum Satin Ivory Silk). Seems to match the 202 or Continental ivory really well.

The 500 set in the foreground is the same as in my previous display here, I haven't taken a picture of it since restoring it a year ago (as seen in the other display) and it seems to have darkened a bit.

[Doug Rose]

I grabbed the one in your first picture the other day.  Should be here in the next couple of days. 

Mike....I watching that as well. At the last minute, I decided against it and I don't know why. Looks to be a beauty....Doug

[WesternElectricBen]

Unbeldi,

You simply have too many ivory 302s, but I can help you out with that problem.

Ben

[unbeldi]

Here are some more pictures of the 1946-1947 WE 304 metal set. As we know, the factories produced no color sets from around 1942 to end of 1948.  So all came from refurbishing shops, and it seems they all had some non-standard "features".  Sometimes, most likely extremely rarely, the housing was not metal, but plastic (see the 302C-7 recently posted, statuary bronze), sometimes the plungers were black, sometimes, the dial was a 5H, not 5J.... dates on a set usually don't all match narrowly.

This telephone has a 5J dated 4-47, so they did make 5J dials during that time, but it could be a refurbishing stamp perhaps (without R). The metal housing they used for this set, has the H1 marking on the outside above the rear cord exit, which indicates it is a 1937-1938 housing. Note, another 1940s anomaly, the housing is marked H1, but the set is a proper 304, and has the requisite 3-switch hookswitch. They couldn't or didn't bother to find an H3 housing, we have to assume, but accomplished the correct configuration, this makes it somewhat more unlikely that this was a later collector re-assembly.  The paint job seemed original too, if anything the housing must have been sandblasted clean.
The plungers are black, which kept me from believing in this set for a long time. But after researching, talking with collectors, reading, comparing, I find nothing left of the distaste for this 'defect', and I certainly did not want to destroy the originality of configuration by painting the plungers.  There is a story being told.

The handset is the proper brown Bakelite type, stamped "59", which means May 1939, the earliest of record in Poplar1's great dating charts.  The paint flaked off from it really bad with a little rubbing. In the "before" picture below, most of the loose paint is still on the handset. After some more polishing, it got way worse, and I decided to repaint the whole phone.

The handset cord has a date of 1950, and was in terrible shape; frankly still is in terrible shape, only better. Outside of the cord exit at the handset it was badly torn, and the tinsel had come apart already, the insulation was gone. The insulation of the leads inside the handset is bad too. The cord was dirty and yellow, but soaking in warm Woolite solution helped the color a lot. While wet I wound it onto a half-inch wooden rod for thorough drying for a several weeks. I braced the torn area at the handset end with shrink tubing and made sure the tubing cooled and solidified in the same coiled fashion as the rest of the cord. Finally, I spray-painted the tubing with the same paint, and sprayed the entire cord just very slightly to freshen up the color a little. This also provided some additional stiffness for the cord. There was nothing to loose, it either went to the garbage can or back on the phone.

[unbeldi]

Unbeldi,

You simply have too many ivory 302s, but I can help you out with that problem.

Ben

Oh really now?

Here is the ivory section in the orchestra of color:
Hmm, some must have been hiding somewhere else.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Here is my version of an ivory 500-series display:

An April'55 500DR-50, and a Feb'57 554BR-50, both original Tenite Butyrate plastic, cords are later.

Dang you, Unbeldi! Those wall phone displays are the same ideas I've had for my 554s! Mind if I use that idea, since you beat me to building creating them first?