A very nice haul of 6 red telephones

[Matilo Telephones]

Last wednesday I had a visit from an older collector I know. He is blowing off some of the fringes of his collection as he has been slowing down his activities over the years.

Since he knows I collect red phones he had a box of goodies for me and came over for coffee and a chat.

Here is what he brought me:

- trimline bush button phone. At least I think it is a Trimline, made in Taiwan. Same housing, right?
- a south african phone. (First thought it was an Italian Safnat) another collector friend already identified it for me.
- e Genie, that is a bit worse for wear
- 3 GPO 706'es!

He wanted 40 euros for them. I didn't hagle.

He also wanted to show me a Danish phone he is very proud of and I only knew from pics. But he took the wrong box and it turned out to be full of NOS vinyl line cords (50!) for bakelite 50ies 60ies phones. I bought that from him too. He said he had plenty as he had some more of these boxes.

This is not an april fools joke.

[WesternElectricBen]

Very nice, Arwin.

My favorite is the GPO 706's.

Ben

[GTE Rick]

love the South African phone -- reminds me of the starlite wall or the Stromberg 1654

[Matilo Telephones]

I got pictures in an email before I got them. I was really pleased with the GPO 706es. That model was high on my wishlist and I wanted to try and hunt one down when in England. But now I have one already.

And I was really curious about the South African one. Didn't know till last night what it was.

It is an ATE Protea: http://www.britishtelephones.com/ate/protea.htm

[twocvbloke]

Two of those 706s appear to have different dials, so I think they're most likely copies made for other countries, such as the Israeli copies often seen here...

The one on the left though looks correct...

[Matilo Telephones]

Yes, there seems to be only one with a GPO dial. Only one or 2 have GPO markings. I didn't have time to check them thouroughly.

They are definitely not made by PYE. Good tip about the israeli origins, possibly.

[LarryInMichigan]

The Israeli dials I have here look exactly like the British ones, so I think that those phones came from elsewhere.  What markings are on the the 706s?

Larry

[HarrySmith]

Nice haul! Good price too. I would hope it is not an April fools prank since it was on April third

[Matilo Telephones]

Thanks, yes, I've had more questions about these 706-es. So I'll make more pics later this weekend. Probably not tonight.

These dials are puzzling. They are not GPO, not PYE and, as it turns out, not Israeli.

[Matilo Telephones]

Well, I've solved the ridle of these 2 706-es with the unusual dial. These are dimple dials, made in south africa as were these phones by ATE.

The other ons is indeed an original GPO phone.

[twocvbloke]

I guess that explains it then, given SA was one of the old empire colonies, it's not surprising they made telephones locally rather than shipping them all the way from blighty to there, saving time and resources...

[Matilo Telephones]

Yes, and of course it is good for the local economy.

I'll post pics when one day I will restore them. I've had a quick inspection and on has a crack. So I'll be making 2 of 3 and there are some parts missing.

Also the dimple dial on the Protea is seized up, so I may need dial parts to restore that one. So I have some work to do on this load, but I'm certainly looking forward to that.

[twocvbloke]

I can't recall which one it was, but one of my GPO phones had a completely seized dial (might be the ivory 746), all it took was dismantling, cleaning and oiling to make it work again, I don't know how different those dials are on the SA 706 phones, but I'm sure they'll be restorable without needing to parts-swap...

[LarryInMichigan]

A good blast of contact cleaner usually helps stuck dials.  Sometimes, I need to remove the governor and clean the ends and pivots.

Larry

[twocvbloke]

That's one thing I like about GPO dials, they're easy to take apart for cleaning (and if you're careful, no dial spring jumping out to attack you!!), fiddly to realign it all when reassembling, but with a little practice it gets easier every time...