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Russ Kirk's mini salesman samples

Started by Russ Kirk, July 13, 2017, 03:14:30 PM

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Russ Kirk

All,

I have added some more salesman samples to my collection.

Four of them are music boxes.

The 3rd photo shows my "Seattle World's Fair" phones.  I know there are other colors for the regular salesman samples. Can someone tell me what other colors the "Seattle World's Fair" gave away?  Were all the colors given away?

Thanks,
Russ
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI

jsowers

I would think the World's Fair Princess promo also came in turquoise, but I don't have any pictures of one. They would have done all five colors, I feel sure. And this was 1962, before the 702 and the additional colors it came in (black, ivory, yellow, light gray, red and moss green), which I don't think ever made it to promos.

You have a great collection there. I also have some Lenox Princess plates and they're not very common, from my observation.
Jonathan

oldguy

Gary

Victor Laszlo

I found a yellow one in a thrift shop in the 1990's. It is the type that holds a ballpoint pen, but the pen was missing. Years later at a telephone collectors' show in Kansas, I saw a yellow pen for sale among a bunch of Bell-related items. I bought it and reunited the two parts.

Russ Kirk

Thanks, that info gives a drive to collect them all in all colors.   

I like the Lenox plates,  i have them in 3 colors: blue, pink and old rose.
- Russ Kirk
ATCA & TCI

jsowers

Quote from: Russ Kirk on July 13, 2017, 07:21:11 PM
Thanks, that info gives a drive to collect them all in all colors.   

I like the Lenox plates,  i have them in 3 colors: blue, pink and old rose.

What you call old rose is called light beige by WE. Old rose is more of a 302 color name. My plates are in the same colors as yours. I can't tell if some may be turquoise and some may be aqua blue, but they all look blue to me. It's too close to call. They wouldn't have a white one on a plate, I don't think, because it's not colorful. Below are mine, for comparison. I happened to get some keychains at the same time, so they're in the picture too. I don't want to hijack your thread--just show that you pretty much have what I do. I haven't seen any others, but I have seen other Bell System Lenox pieces.

Another thing about these small phones is how many places they put the penholder. In front of the handset, behind the handset, in the middle of the dial, and with the Princess, to the bottom right or out on a sheet of clear Lucite plastic (or whatever material that is). So often the pens are missing, so that's a great story Victor told about finding the right color pen for his.

One thing to look for are the original boxes. The phone company sometimes gave away these small phones in a Christmas box with a gift certificate inside for whatever the giver requested. Sometimes it was an extension phone for a year or a month's free phone service or some such thing.
Jonathan