Very Unique Princess ???

[Dan/Panther]

A few weeks back, someone posted a Craig's list selection of about 6 phones. I was able to get a Beige 10 button 1500D, and a Turquoise Princess dated 6-60.
They came today, and I was surprised to see the plungers on the Princess. They are solid turquoise colored.
I have never seen these before, they are not painted and they are original, does anyone else have plungers like these ?
D/P

[Phonesrfun]

Is it Western Electric?

[Dan/Panther]

Bill;
Yes 701B 6-60. The thing that I don't understand is the fact that the purpose of the Princess was the lighted dial an plungers. I can't even imagine any manufacturer making them non clear ?
D/P

[paul-f]

Both the Northern Electric Contessa and Stromberg Carlson Petite had opaque plungers.  NE occasionally used white on any colored set or matching color.  SC had matching color plungers.

I don't recall reading anywhere that Western used anything other than clear.  Perhaps this set had a plunger transplant.

[Dan/Panther]

Paul;
I agree, I've never seen anything but the clear. I can't imagine anyone changing just the plungers ?
Remember up until recently we didn't think Turquoise was made before 64 also.
D/P

[paul-f]

D/P:  I can't imagine why folks would change plungers either -- but I'm not surprised that things like that happened. 

A lot of the phones I got from flea markets in the 1990s had parts from various manufacturers.  For some reason many of the North sets that made it to New England had Stromberg or AE handsets on them.  I had to buy North handsets at the midwest shows or have them shipped in to restore the phones.

The housing on your phone was changed, as it's dated 61.  What are the handset plastic dates?

I'm open to the notion that WE may have made some colored plungers - especially during product trials - but would like to see them in a catalog, ad or BSP.

I don't understand your date reference.  We know that Turquoise was an original Princess color in 1959, and was made for field trials before that.  It was formally added to the 500-series palette in 1964 (with limited availability before that).

[Dan/Panther]

Just recently we had discussion about turquoise Princess phones and some mentioned they did not know turquoise predated 1964, That is when i posted photos of one i bought at the Placentia show, and photos showed it was dated 1960. I think it was pointed out that 64 was the initial date for turquoise 500 sets.
Some went so afar as to say the turquoise Princess dated 60 was a rare variety. It was later established that they were very common.
We touched on it here in this thread, I can't find the one with more discussion.
But you can see there was some confusion about the turquoise date.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2639.0

D/P

[McHeath]

An interesting oddity.  It seems that we ought not to ever be 100% certain about anything Western Electric did.  Perhaps someone changed these plungers, but perhaps it was also made this way.  Do we know of anyone living who was there and could give us inside info?

[Dan/Panther]

I can't understand why we can't find people that were there.
D/P

[poplar1]

I just found a new old stock pink 701BW with pink plungers.

Since it is a "W" set, there are no Bell System markings.

I'm still wondering why there would have been a market for non-Bell Princess sets since after 1956, WE could legally sell only to the Bell companies and the military. (There were some exceptions.)

[Dennis Markham]

Dave, I've run into a few Princess type sets (don't remember if they were all W.E. or not) that had painted plungers.  They seemed to be Polane painted during a refurbishing of the housings.  Did W.E. release these phones with painted plungers?

[poplar1]

I haven't opened it up yet, but I don't think any part of it is painted. The spade lugs don't have the marks so I don't think the set was ever installed.

[unbeldi]

I remember the auction and missed the end of it.  You got a good deal on the phone, considering how high the pink Princesses are sometimes selling. I remember I was very curious about the model number and the plungers as well, and that would have been my only reason to bid on it.
But the dial looked like it had been used quite a bit.

[cello973]

Dan

I have a 7-60 white with white plungers

[unbeldi]

My 5-60 pink set has clear plungers, and my 12-60 turquoise also has them.
I also have an aqua blue, painted red (-53), of 5-60 with clear ones.