Etelux - The UK's answer to the Princess phone

[migette]

On a recent visit to the vintage wireless and communications fair held near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire I picked up this compact phone which I had never encountered before. Researching it on the web, the Etelux was introduced by Ericsson during 1962 or thereabouts and was mainly for export and not used by the GPO. It was however adopted by the Hull Corporation who at this time operated its own telephone administration and was marketed under the 'for my lady's boudoir' banner and was obviously inspired by the Princess phone.
Early examples were made with an optional lighted dial and were supplied with a bell set or subset as there was no space inside for these to be fitted. Later on Ericsson merged its telephone operations with the Ilford company of Plessey, their logo being shown on the dial,which had a silver gilt appearance.
At this time I think they introduced a tiny ac buzzer which can be seen in one of the photos, also the circuitry was similar to the tele 706 and incorporated a baretter seen in one of pictures as a black tube which compensated for line distances from the exchange.
The handset was based on the 706 type with a modified transmitted cap, this being more rounded.

Hope this will be of interest

Peter

[Willytx]

The base looks like it took some design cues from the wall mounted Starlite. The handset on the other hand  , looks sort of German.

[bingster]

That's a very nice design.  I particularly like the coppery plastic fingerwheel.

[gpo706]

Nice find, sharp lines.

Never seen or heard of this model before, thanks for the pics.

[DavePEI]

On a recent visit to the vintage wireless and communications fair held near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire I picked up this compact phone which I had never encountered before. Researching it on the web, the Etelux was introduced by Ericsson during 1962 or thereabouts and was mainly for export and not used by the GPO. It was however adopted by the Hull Corporation who at this time operated its own telephone administration and was marketed under the 'for my lady's boudoir' banner and was obviously inspired by the Princess phone.
Peter

Hi Peter:

Was British Ericcson calling itself Etelco at that time, or did the Etelco name come later?

Dave