Anyone watch this?
Not an E1 ...D80370 Pre E1
What a find!! Went cheap!!!...Doug
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281199666287
no but 35 bidders later, .................end of the auction Doug.. ;)
Maybe Santa will put one of those under my Chirstmas tree.
Dave...I have never seen the D80370 handset before, I had heard the legend. Wonderful phone.....Doug
For a phone of which there are supposedly only 25 known examples it certainly shows up on eBay pretty regularly. ???
Not sure where the " supposedly only 25 known examples" is from as this was WE first handset desk phone. Candlestick base with a chopped of stem and an A1 mount. It was a production phone and not a trial base phone. Legend is it was made between 1924 and 1925. I would hazard a guess of well over 25 were made. I am old, but not around back then. The earliest B1 I have is from 1929, anyone have an earlier date? Earliest D1 I have is 3/30.
Just a guess of manufacturing dates? May Paul F can chime in on dates.
A1 1924-1925
B1 19Xx-1930
D1 1930-1937
The rarity of this auction is the handset. Not an E1 yet, a D80370. I have never seen one. This is really a "rare" Handset....Doug
Doug, here are my guesses/observations for dates:
1924 is the year G. K. Thompson received a patent for the hand set mounting which appears to be the one produced as the D-76869. The D-80370 handset is not shown in this patent.
Manufacture dates:
D-76869 (A1 hand set mounting) 1927?
B1 1928-1932 (latest I have is III 32--also has a 2HB dial dated III 32)
D1 1930-1939 (latest I have is 1939)
WE apparently did not stamp the date of manufacture of B1 or desk stand (candlestick) bases until 1929. However, you can spot a 1928 B1 because of the holes for the cord ties. These were replaced with posts for the S-hooks by the time (1929) that WE started stamping the date on the inside of the base.
Transmitters, on the other hand, were date-stamped earlier. I'm looking at a 337 transmitter dated "MAR 1927."
I robbed the following pictures from Ebay showing the different B1s--one should look familiar:
I think I posted a photo of one of these handles I repaired that was damaged.
David.....I think your guesses make more sense than mine. It would expalin why if an A1 was made in 1925 (my guess), what happend until the B1 was made. Great insight as usual...always a pleasure....Doug
Well I've seen 3 of these in the past couple of months. Two on this board; this one, Auction contest 98 and there's this one on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221308629216
Hardly extremely rare.
Hard to find but not rare, agreed. But when is the last time you saw the correct handset on it? Mine has an E1. This handset is special....Doug
What is somewhat confusing in following this topis is that the current eBay for an A1 just above has a "D76869" stamped on the back of the shaft and an E1 handset. The phone that started this topic has a pre-E1 "D80370" number on the handset and the seller did not show what, if anything, was stamped on the back of the shaft. Just saying in case anyone besides me got confused.
Tom...an A1 is the mount, it never was stamped on the back like a B1 or a D1. All A1s had "D76869" stamped on the stem.
It can be confusing as for years collectors called an A1 an AA1 which is a totally different phone. AA1 is a 302 phone that replaced candlesticks and used the subset/magneto for everything. Basically empty inside....Doug
I'm confused too... ::)
Hey Paul....Wow! Never saw that before. AB 1 underneath. Is it a B or something crossed out.....This is getting good....Doug
It looks like a 3. An A-3?
I forget where I saw the 25 known to exist figure, but I don't think it was meant to refer to the number produced, just the number in collections. It was probably left over from the days before eBay. While still uncommon, I would not say that they are rare, or experimental, which I have also heard. I think they just had a very limited run. My point is that A-1s are a lot more common than people used to think, and the lower prices are a reflection of that. Look at what happened to B-1 prices. I don't expect to see A-1s for $100 anytime soon, but I would not invest in them either, since more and more keep coming out of the woodwork.
And then there's the rediculous:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200947289090
That's #26 ;D
I thought it looked like an A3 converted to A1.
And call me an AE person but I can't see any difference in the "rare" non E1 handset on the subject of this topic and other A1 sets with E1's pictures above. What am I missing?
Terry
Quote from: tallguy58 on November 09, 2013, 08:23:45 PM
And then there's the rediculous:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200947289090
Item condition:Used (For that price it should be NEW!) :)
Price:US $2,495.00
+$73.65 shipping
Quote from: AE_Collector on November 09, 2013, 09:03:58 PM
I thought it was an A3 converted to A1.
ANd call me an AE person but I can't see any difference in the "rare" non E1 handset on the subject of this topic and other A1 sets with E1's pictures above. What am I missing?
Terry
I do believe the only difference is the lack of the designation of E1, as opposed to the "D" number, which I think was for items that were still in the design stages. This one is obviously very, very close to the production version. Larry Wolff's book has an example of an even earlier prototype of the E1 which is similar to the E1 but has noticeable differences.
The thing that confuses me is that the A1, itself has D number, but it went into limited production. No, it is NOT extremely rare. I have one, and I have probably seen 6 or 7 others "in the flesh".
Some early handsets did not have the condenser inside the handset--D80370 but possibly also early E1s.
The D80370 has a D-85175 transmitter. Unlike the 395B transmitter, there is no condenser. This transmitter has a date stamp May 1927.
The receiver also has a D- number rather than 557B.
Pictures are from the same phone pictured in the original post here. The seller said he got the phone over 40 years ago, when he was 15, as a gift from an old man who had moved from New Jersey to Florida.
I actually have most of one of those handsets! I went looking today and found it. Mine has a newer transmitter, but the handle and receiver both appear to be original. The inside of the receiver has the D number stamped into the metal it but has "557" stamped over it in orange ink. The handle is marked the same way as the one in the auction, but it doesn't have the D number. I can see some wavyness where the number would have been, like it was filled in on the mold. Then over the top of that spot it has "E1" crudly engraved, looks like it was done by hand. My guess is early production of E1s where they were "converting" the existing stock of D numbered handsets to standard markings?
I'll take and post a couple photos of it later.
---Eric
FINALLY got around to taking those pictures. Here is the handle marking and both ends of the receiver. You can't see it in the photo, but underneath the E1 engraving, there is definitely wavyness from where the handset mold was modified to remove the D number.
---Eric