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Are all turquoise colours the same in all models of phones?

Started by 11furby11, March 26, 2011, 10:11:27 PM

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11furby11

Hi Everyone
I looked through the "search" on the forum regarding turquoise desk phones, but could not find an answer to the question that I would like to ask of the forum.  I really value your opinion, as I am looking at purchasing a turquoise phone very soon. 
Are all turquoise phones (in the desk model rotary  or wall phone rotary) the same colour of turquoise?  In other words, would "Bell" have made the same colour of turquoise phone as "Stromberg Carlson?"  If not, which turquoise colour of phone do you prefer, and why?

Cheers
Sherry

P.S.  I saw the fine example of the difference between the aqua blue and turquoise, thanks to who ever posted that fine example, but I really want to buy a nice turquoise one.  Please give me your honest opinion on your favorite turquiose phone, I really appreciate your input. Thanks again!!

paul-f

Check out this page and search for turquoise.
  http://www.paul-f.com/color.htm

AFAIK, SC and ITT copied the WE turquoise, so they're pretty close to each other.

The AE colors are on a linked page and include a turquoise, but it is a lighter, greener shade that the WE color.

Turquoise is one of the more entertaining colors to collect.  Many of us have acquired phones that looked, or were described as turquoise, to find that they were actually aqua sets that had faded to about the same shade as turquoise.  As light colored plastic phones faded from sun or UV exposure, they got a bit yellower.

It's always wise to unscrew the handset caps and/or look at the inside of the housing before proclaiming a phone turquoise.

I like all the "turquoise" phones I've found so far, so can't recommnend a favorite.  My plan is to collect them all.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

Adam

Quote from: paul-f on March 26, 2011, 10:47:45 PM
My plan is to collect them all.

My plan is to collect *one*!  :)

I don't have any turquoise phones in my collection yet, I'd like to have a nice 500 or rotary Princess, but every time I've seen them on eBay they're either badly age-darkened or too expensive...

(The phone currently in my icon is aqua, not turquoise.)
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

11furby11

I noticed that some of the turquoise phones seem to have aqua parts, unless the one part (usually the mouth or ear piece) hasn't yellowed?  I am going to take my chances on one on the on-line auctions, and cross my fingers and hope I get a turquoise phone. It's so hard to tell from some of the pictures.  I'm kind of glad that the turquoise colours are similair.  It means I have a 50/50 chance of an aqua or a turquoise, instead of 10 different shades of turquoise and get lucky if you get the one you want.  Good point about the AE, I saw one on e-bay, and it looks to be substancially a different turquoise colour.

GG



I have not seen, first-hand, WE 500s in turquoise though I have seen them in aqua blue (nice color for bedrooms).  However I have seen ITT & SC 500s in turquoise on Ebay, and it is a slightly different color to AE, whose turquoise is a light green (somehow I managed to acquire two AE 87 three-line sets in turquoise). 

Also, ITT orange 500s are more red-orange than SC orange 500s, and WE didn't produce a 500 in any shade of orange. 

Greens differ widely.  WE is most definitely a grayish-green, probably to fit the color schemes on military bases more readily than some other "brighter" shade of green.  AE's dark green is a more outdoorsy shade.  The two shades of green in GPO 706s (two-tone green) don't match either: one is lighter than AE green, the other is a kind of pine green. 

ITT and SC, as well as BT (Viscount model) and RWT Elektrim (Poland) each produced a very bright green that is sometimes described humorously as "poison green."   Then there's the grayish color with the slightest greenish tinge, of the Bundespost (German Post) type 611, and the "fern green" introduced later, and the lighter grayish-green used by TeleNorm (models E2 and E3 and the wall sets of the same vintages). 

ITT 500s and 2500s in red were "cherry red" (as in the bright red cherry on an ice cream sundae) and was brighter than WE red.  Cortelco still makes 2500s in that color of red which are great for power fail/emergency phones on PBXs.  AE 80 red was closer to WE 500 red than to ITT cherry red.  BT red is halfway between WE and ITT. 

Anyway, yeah, you could practically set up a museum on the subject of color choices. 

If I was manufacturing telephones today, I'd stick with the original WE roster from the 302: black, ivory/white, red, green, dark blue (if the Army gets moss green, the Navy needs a reasonable shade of blue; anyone know what the Air Force prefers?).  That would seem to cover the essentials for home and office decor (and military bases). 

Adam

Quote from: GG on March 27, 2011, 12:43:20 AM
ITT 500s and 2500s in red were "cherry red" (as in the bright red cherry on an ice cream sundae) and was brighter than WE red.

As I've documented somewhere else on this site, (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3909.0)
originally ITT made the same shade of red (their color code 02) as Western Electric red (color code 53).  At some point in the early 70's, ITT changed to the brighter Cherry Red (their color code 47).

Stromberg Carlson's red was always the same shade as Western Electric red 53.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Dennis Markham

To find consistent color--any color-- today is virtually impossible.  If you could take a Turquoise phone from each manufacturer at the time they came off the assembly line and compare them that would be the only way to make a comparison.  By now everything has aged and they've all aged differently for the most part.  You could buy a dozen Turquoise 500's from eBay and unless they were locked in some vault together somewhere, each will have a different variation of the original color.  Some are better than others.

JorgeAmely

Would these help with your question?

1) 1964 WE 500
2) 1969 WE 500
3) 1960 AE80

There are practically the same, except for minor color differences perhaps due to lightning conditions. In my opinion, the AE80 seems to be truer to the "definition" of turquoise. But again, it depends on the calibration of your eye balls. If for years you have gotten used to #1 being true turquoise, then #2 and 3 will seem off color.
Jorge

11furby11

Jorge
That helps alot.  How did you get the colour vibrancy back into those phones? or did you get them like that?  I just scored an AE Turquoise wall phone on E-bay today, it is discoloured from a sticker being placed on the front.  When I receive it, I'll post pictures of it.  I don't know how I am going to even the colour out, I'll deal with it when it arrives. 
Love those phone!!!!
Sherry

Doug Rose

Quote from: JorgeAmely on March 27, 2011, 04:41:01 PM
Would these help with your question?

1) 1964 WE 500
2) 1969 WE 500
3) 1960 AE80

There are practically the same, except for minor color differences perhaps due to lightning conditions. In my opinion, the AE80 seems to be truer to the "definition" of turquoise. But again, it depends on the calibration of your eye balls. If for years you have gotten used to #1 being true turquoise, then #2 and 3 will seem off color.
Jorge..... turquoise is nice, but green is better. Your grass looks fantastic!!! New England is just losing the last remnants of snow....GREEN!!!.....Doug
Kidphone

JorgeAmely

Quote from: Doug Rose on March 27, 2011, 06:07:49 PM
Quote from: JorgeAmely on March 27, 2011, 04:41:01 PM
Would these help with your question?

1) 1964 WE 500
2) 1969 WE 500
3) 1960 AE80

There are practically the same, except for minor color differences perhaps due to lightning conditions. In my opinion, the AE80 seems to be truer to the "definition" of turquoise. But again, it depends on the calibration of your eye balls. If for years you have gotten used to #1 being true turquoise, then #2 and 3 will seem off color.
Jorge..... turquoise is nice, but green is better. Your grass looks fantastic!!! New England is just losing the last remnants of snow....GREEN!!!.....Doug

I need to get the gardener out there (a.k.a. Jorge) and mow it again, but it is around sixty outside and it just feels too cold to be mowing at that temperature. I am afraid the oil in the machine will all gel.  ;D ;D ;D
Jorge

JorgeAmely

Quote from: 11furby11 on March 27, 2011, 05:59:37 PM
Jorge
That helps alot.  How did you get the colour vibrancy back into those phones? or did you get them like that?  I just scored an AE Turquoise wall phone on E-bay today, it is discoloured from a sticker being placed on the front.  When I receive it, I'll post pictures of it.  I don't know how I am going to even the colour out, I'll deal with it when it arrives. 
Love those phone!!!!
Sherry

Sherry:

It depends on how bad they are. If the color is all faded, then water sanding is the way to go. Start with lower grits, such as 320 or 400 and work all the way up to 12000, using the Micromesh specialty papers. Follow that with Novus 2 and then F-21, a product of Turtle Wax.

This Gray AE80 was almost gone beyond recovery, but some TLC brought it back. I have to mention that it used to belong to Terry, our resident AE expert, or he gets mad at me.  ;D

https://picasaweb.google.com/Amelyenator/AE80InDawnGray#


This one is the album for the turquoise below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Amelyenator/AE80InTurquoiseColorFrom1960#



Jorge

Doug Rose

Quote from: JorgeAmely on March 27, 2011, 06:14:52 PM
Quote from: Doug Rose on March 27, 2011, 06:07:49 PM
Quote from: JorgeAmely on March 27, 2011, 04:41:01 PM
Would these help with your question?

1) 1964 WE 500
2) 1969 WE 500
3) 1960 AE80

There are practically the same, except for minor color differences perhaps due to lightning conditions. In my opinion, the AE80 seems to be truer to the "definition" of turquoise. But again, it depends on the calibration of your eye balls. If for years you have gotten used to #1 being true turquoise, then #2 and 3 will seem off color.
Jorge..... turquoise is nice, but green is better. Your grass looks fantastic!!! New England is just losing the last remnants of snow....GREEN!!!.....Doug

I need to get the gardener out there (a.k.a. Jorge) and mow it again, but it is around sixty outside and it just feels too cold to be mowing at that temperature. I am afraid the oil in the machine will all gel.  ;D ;D ;D
AAAHH humor ...I get it.....I woke up to 24 degrees.... Springtime in  New England!!!
Kidphone

JorgeAmely

Doug:

My condolences on those 24 degrees. All humor aside, it has been awful here in CA lately. The first day of spring brought us 5 inches of rain ... in one day! Not to mention the radiation from Japan.
Jorge

Doug Rose

Quote from: JorgeAmely on March 27, 2011, 06:58:26 PM
Doug:

My condolences on those 24 degrees. All humor aside, it has been awful here in CA lately. The first day of spring brought us 5 inches of rain ... in one day! Not to mention the radiation from Japan.
Believe it or not, they have found radiation from Japan in MA. I just saw it on the news. It poses no threat, but it is a concern. ....take care....Doug
Kidphone