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Swirled telephones

Started by Jim Stettler, December 20, 2009, 02:10:24 PM

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Jim Stettler

I collect swirled telephones as well as clear telephones. Most collectors have seen photos of clear phones, but a lot of folks haven't seen swirled sets

The green Princess is actually made of marble and has SC guts. The trimlines are SC Slenderettes. The last picture shows the 4 official swirl color for the SC Slenderettes. the phone on the left is a modern swirl with a swirled plastic base.
The photos aren't the best and some of the phones are dusty.

Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Dan/Panther

We use to make battery cases like that at GM, when you do a color change on the injection mold machine, until it's purged they come out marbled. They never sold batteries that way, but thought it would be a nice custom touch, no two alike.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

benhutcherson

Very nice.

I have a handful of transmitter cups that are marbled, but I've never seen a complete telephone in person.

They seem to be pretty rare-is that correct?

Tonyrotary

I never even knew they made marbled phones. Learn something new all the time.

McHeath

Wow, what a unique and cool collection!  I recall a swirled pattern 500 on e-bay a year or so ago, in fact is that it?  (It had a face where the number card went as I recall)  And one of the old phone dealers has a swirled Trimline in brown, but other than that I've never seen one.  You must have the market cornered. 

Jim Stettler

I call un-official swirl sets "Scarce". SC made  4 official colors, The official colors are findable. they were made in dial and  rd button TT. Somewher I have a SunFlower Telephone Catalog. There is a 1 page ad that shows the swirl sets. I think all the official swirls were small swirl vs the marble pattern.
There were also a few other examples that were made. I think NT made a contempra with a white leather handset and white marbled plastic base.
They also made a brown leather Contempra  w/ a burled look plastic.

I read that the last production run of (Bell System) WE trimlines (December 1983). were done in a blue /white swirl. I think these were probably employee only phones.
Typically swirled plastic would be recycled into the melt hopper to make transmitter cups. The TT pink princess was made w/ transmitter cup plastic. This phone was notched for mod. I would really like to locate the matching handset.
My black/ white 500 was an Ebay find a year or two ago.It has a green handset and red line cord.  I think it is 1962. Eventually I will date match a black phone to the housing  and convert it over.
I have seen a pink/white 500, 2 other multi-color Princesses and I have heard of a white/rose 302. I also have a bell lab referance that shows a clear/white swirl 302 housing. The clear/white housing was done to study flow patterns in the molds.  I suspect that someone probably made some swirled sculptura telephones. They would look real "Mod".

I know of 1 other collector that has a collection of swirl phones. I think his collection is bigger.


Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

McHeath

What's the story of the marble Princess?

Jim Stettler

I bought the green marble princess years ago thru the ATCA newsletter. This was back when you listed your phones in the newsletter. Prospective buyers would call for a verbal description.

The seller had it at the previous show , but no one was interested.

The phone has brass inserts for the handset caps.  It should have inserts for  base screws but the phone was never fully completed. Inside of the housing it has "made in Italy" written in pencil.

I have never seen or heard of another one of these. I wonder if one of the guys who made marble phones  custom made it for himself.

Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

teka-bb


Hi Jim,

Do you know / have the German swirled phones?

=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

Jim Stettler

Quote from: teka-bb on January 31, 2010, 06:14:52 AM

Hi Jim,

Do you know / have the German swirled phones?



I used to have a Blue W48 that had a very minor bit of black swirl at the front. It was like a few pellets of black accidently got in the mold. 
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Dave F

Here are a few WE swirled artifacts:

1:
Transparent G3 handset shell with light ivory and blue swirls.  The swirls don't show up very well in the photo.  Also of interest, this handset has no cord hole.

2A & B:
Red/black swirled G handset receiver caps.

3:
Pink/black/gray swirled G receiver cap (no holes).

4:
Blue/red swirled G transmitter cap (no holes).

5:
white/blue swirled G transmitter cap (no holes).

Dave F

My new swirlee:  Western Electric 500DM (1976) swirled orange/ivory.  This gem was a buy-it-now on eBay last week.  It had been up for sale for about 10 minutes when I found it.  It's really beautiful.  The main color is orange, similar to what would have been used on Trimlines of that time.  Dial face and handset caps are ivory.  W.E. swirled relics are extremely rare.  I think I'm very fortunate to have found this one.

DF

Doug Rose

Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remeber a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug
Kidphone

WEBellSystemChristian

#13
That is one cool phone! I wonder if WE made swirled sets to use up scrap plastic?
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Dave F

Quote from: Doug Rose on November 09, 2013, 09:06:41 AM
Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remember a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug

Thanks Doug,

I'm so lucky -- This has to be one of the coolest phones I have ever seen, and I've certainly seen plenty of nifty phones!

W.E. never made orange 500s for general release.  The orange sets that occasionally turn up usually come from ITT or SC.  Almost all the Howard Johnson orange 500s were ITT.  However, W.E. did do a custom orange run for Howard Johnson.  The W.E. specimens are made from a special type of plastic called "Unobtanium" (this is the same material that AUTOVON Card Dialer cards are apparently made from!).  I have one of those W.E. rarities, and you can see it here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3831.msg50804#msg50804

DF