Northern Telecom Diplomat

[HowardPgh]

I got this brown telephone at the flea market. I did a search on this forum and couldn't find much info about it.

[paul-f]

I got this brown telephone at the flea market. I did a search on this forum and couldn't find much info about it.

There's some basic model number and color info here:

     http://www.paul-f.com/Imagination.html#Diplomat

Note the references at the top of the page. The catalogs may have more details.

[Ktownphoneco]

Howard  ... There aren't a lot of these telephones around for some reason, and it seems that they were poorly marketed.    I have Northern "T" series catalogs up to and including the T-9, which was initially printed around 1969, and has updates which include new model updates for the year 1972, but the "Diplomat" is not listed.    What's even more strange, is the fact that the set isn't mentioned anywhere in my Bell Canada Station Installation & Repair manual for 1981, or, in the 1988 edition of that same manual.    I've been collecting for over 25 years, and never saw one until about a year and a half ago when I noticed a listing on eBay.     The price was fairly cheap so I bought it.    The bottom of mine has a sticker which states, "Sold by Bell Canada".   It seems to have been poorly marketed here in Canada.    I suspect the set was manufactured at one of Northern's U.S.A. plants, based on the fact the factory stickers on the bottom of the set, only quotes an FCC approval and registration label :  AB6982-68817-TE-T, but there's no Canadian equivalency label.  Although the U.S. registration information would probably suffice here in Canada, the fact that it bears the U.S. label, indicates to me that the set was manufactured in the U.S.A. rather than in Canada.   
I also found this U.S. advertisement showing the U.S. Bell System logo in the bottom right corner, which is another indication of the origin of this set.  Double click the picture below to enlarge.

Jeff Lamb

[paul-f]

... It seems to have been poorly marketed here in Canada.    I suspect the set was manufactured at one of Northern's U.S.A. plants, based on the fact the factory stickers on the bottom of the set, only quotes an FCC approval and registration label :  AB6982-68817-TE-T, but there's no Canadian equivalency label.  Although the U.S. registration information would probably suffice here in Canada, the fact that it bears the U.S. label, indicates to me that the set was manufactured in the U.S.A. rather than in Canada.   
I also found this U.S. advertisement showing the U.S. Bell System logo in the bottom right corner, which is another indication of the origin of this set.

Supporting Jeff's observations, the references on my site that mention the Diplomat are the U.S. distributor catalogs and a loose-leaf binder titled "Station Apparatus Catalog," published in 1985 by the NT Advanced Telephone Products Division in Nashville, TN. The Diplomat has a one page listing in the Retired Products section.

I have a MIB set, and there are no country of origin or other markings on the set or box to suggest where it was made. I'll check the internal components when time permits.

[.....]

There is one for sale on Esty.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/655527659/retro-brown-telephone-northern-telecom
( dead link 03-27-21 )