Colonial Blue AE90!!!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I stumbled on this listing of 10 phones on ebay. I noticed that most of the phones were AE, and then I saw the phone at the bottom of the picture---and my heart stopped for a second---a Colonial Blue AE90!!!

I immediately pushed the button at $75 BiN. I would think that the Garnet Red alone is worth the price I paid for the lot, right?

Very, very happy with my purchase!!!!

www.ebay.com/itm/262342073413

[AE_Collector]

Sure looks like it to me Christian!

I have heard of one collector, a friend of Ray Kotke ...Gene Doom who has one. There may have been someone else as well that said they had or knew of one when Gene showed pics of his years ago.

You will have something to compare your desk 80 to because I am almost certain that is Colonial Blue. That is definitely a find. One thing that a 90 Wall phone needs to be OLD is a painted hook rather than chrome which that looks to have. Some other nice stuff there as well.

Great find!

Terry

[jsowers]

Christian, be sure to send packing instructions. This could easily turn into a big pile of cracked plastic and you certainly don't want that to happen. I would ask the seller to double box the blue wall phone if I were you.

Congratulations on a great find. What is it, yesterday we just learned how rare these are from Terry and then one shows up the next day. You never know.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Christian, be sure to send packing instructions. This could easily turn into a big pile of cracked plastic and you certainly don't want that to happen. I would ask the seller to double box the blue wall phone if I were you.

Congratulations on a great find. What is it, yesterday we just learned how rare these are from Terry and then one shows up the next day. You never know.

The seller actually "loves packing stuff" so they agreed to get extra bubble wrap to wrap each phone to my instructions. Definitely a pleasure to work with so far!!!

Would that make this the 2nd Colonial Blue AE90 known to exist?

[AE_Collector]

Second one that I know of. It would have likely been on the TCI list quite a number of years ago where this was discussed and Gene posted pictures of his. That was the first one known to exist for everyone involved in that conversation at that time. Prior to that AE collectors were generally of the opinion that the color was eliminated before the 90 was introduced. I know that I was overjoyed to find my gray AE 90 and I assume that I will never have a Colonial Blue 90. I used to search eBay all the time but I am getting closer to needing to find homes for more of my phones rather than acquiring more so I don't watch eBay much anymore.

Terry

[rdelius]

There was one in a collection in Charlotte NC that was bought by Phoneco about 15 years ago.I have a blue type 80 also

[WEBellSystemChristian]

The seller actually "loves packing stuff" so they agreed to get extra bubble wrap to wrap each phone to my instructions. Definitely a pleasure to work with so far!!!

Just curious, have you or would you ask the seller to double box the shipment for added protection?

I asked the seller to pack the 90 with extra care and extra bubble wrap, but did not ask to double box it. I trust this seller will pack it very well, as he/she works in a glass shop. They presumably pack glass for shipment, as they 'have plenty' of bubble wrap for work!

I have never had a bad experience with a phone well armored with bubble wrap, it's the ones with a couple sheets thrown in the box that have wound up broken. I'm sure that 90 is safe in the hands of that seller.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Anyone notice the line cord coming from the 90? It looks like it might be Jade Green.

Also, the Forget-Me-Not base looks fairly early. The plastics may be fifties, although the fingerwheel suggests otherwise. It looks like the base and handset caps were painted, so I would guess it went through a refurb with new plastics.

[Pourme]

I'm jealous and happy for you at the same time....keep up posted on the progress of your purchase!

[AE_Collector]

Well the green cord on the 90 doesn't mean much as a 90 would never have had a cord, they were always hardwired except some had the big modular plates added to the back of them in later years. However, here we go again as on my iPad this is now looking Jade Green again like your 80. And the color code is 12 again indicating Jade Green. Note the date from 1959 is pretty close to your blue/green (lets go with Bleen!) 80. This is a very old 90 as it uses the base of an 80 and has the painted hook switch cradle.

Got my fingers crossed for you and hopefully the color will be obvious when it arrives.

Terry

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Terry; on my iPad screen it looks very Blue. The cord looks very obviously Jade Green in contrast to the switchhook next to it.

Are you sure '12' is a color code? My Colonial Blue 80 (very convinced now that it is indeed Blue) has the same base code, but is also Colonal Blue. Also, are you sure '59' indicates a color code? I read an AE catalog from 1957 that dedicated 2 pages to the 'new' type 90 (showing a picture of one in color); by the time 1959 rolled around, the 90 would have been 2 years old.

The 80 and 90 are really growing on me; I used to look at them as ugly, but now I think they're really attractive phones! There are some aspects of the 80 and 90 that WE should have taken note of; like the easy-clean hookswitch contacts, spring-releasing dial, walking handset, etc.

I can't wait for it to arrive!!!

[AE_Collector]

Here is Paul's "AE Color Code" chart.

http://www.paul-f.com/AEcolors.htm

Near the top you see color 12 (which is sometimes indicated as color D) is Jade Green or Avocado Green. These two greens arent the same but in typical AE logic they decided that any particular model of phone would be available in Jade or Avocado but not both so color 12 could work for both greens! No one ever said to themselves " What could possibly go wrong with that"! The first thing that comes to mind is pallet loads of plastic parts arriving in the wrong shade of green!

The exact code format on your very early 80's and 90's wont completely make sense when looking at Pauls chart. Initially this entire code was 1 letter and 5 digits but soon after it changed to 2 letters and 6 digits? Pauls chart originated a little later in time and AE had made some small changes to the format by then.

Your "Bleen" 90 has N92212. N is the first potted network style later followed by NA, NB, NC etc. The next two digits 92 could be 90, 91, 92 or 93. The second digit 0 indicates black without hook latch, 1 is black with hook latch. 2 is color ir two tone color without latch and 3 is same with a latch. The 3rd digit was used for type of handset cord, straight or coiled with your "2" indicating coiled. The 4th and 5th digits are the color code, 12 in this case for Green which on an 80 or 90 is Jade Green as Avocado came much later and never on 90's or 80's though it did appear on 80E's (the all plastic 80's with a face plate and mat). . The 6th digit in the newer code format was added later to indicate any special features on the phone. Some phones had extra little buttons for various purposes that this code would decipher.

Your 90 looks to have a T and then maybe 16C stamped on it. I am stumped by the T at the moment though a tube for party line ringer is a possibility. The 16 is likely a 16 cycle frequency ringer and C will refer to a numbers/letters Metropolitan dial. Of course tubes and ringers could easily have changed from the way it was originally shipped.

As for dates, as discussed AE saw no reason for the most part to date anything. It seems to be quite soon after the introduction of all these new models in the 1950's that for whatever reason they decided to start putting dates on the baseplates. It started like both of your 1959's with a 4 digit year and 2 digit month stamped somewhere other than right with the other coding.

This "Bleen" 90 looks like it has 3 59 34 which is March 1959 and the 34 is the other unknown code.

Then before too long it all moved onto one line in most cases with the date portion changing to a 2 digit month, a 2 digit year and followed with a 1 or 2 digit number usually mistaken for a day. This has never been deciphered but is usually thought to be a plant code but could be a shift or a week indicator. To finish up eith AE and dates, eventually by the late 70's they converted to a month day year ink stamp mainly seen on the plastic based phones of that time frame.

More AE Colonial Blue discussion in Christians Colonial Blue AE 80 topic:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=15110.0

Terry

[WEBellSystemChristian]

What did the hooklatch look like on the type 90? I've seen it mentioned as an option in AE catalogs, but I don't think I've ever actually seen one before.

Also, was Jade Green the color closer to Blue, and Avacado closer to Green? Because they were both code 12, I have seen examples of each listed as either Jade or Avacado.

[AE_Collector]

I think the hook latch on a 90 is a little chrome button that comes through the case in the flat area right below the dial. It is off center towards the left (hook switch) side. I can only really recall seeing one once. If you look at the inside of all AE 90 housings you will see the guide for the button actuator molded in.

AE's Avocado isn't too far off of WECo's Moss Green in my opinion. Jade Green is a much richer green. The cord on the 90 looks to be the perfect rendition of Jade Green on my iPad at least.

So Avocado is quite close to Moss Green and I guess that means that Jade Green could be slightly closer to Colonial Blue. I dont think that Colonial Blue is quite as bright blue as Mediterranean Blue. And I have noticed that the Jade Green in soft plastic isnt quite as bright green as in hard plastic.

Terry

[stub]

Here's the pic of Mr. Doom's Blue AE 90 in the TCI Photographs - scroll down to Eugene Doom
                                                     https://tinyurl.com/ygtcuqb

  WEBellSystemChristian ,  GREAT FIND !!!!!!!!!  stub