Restoration protocol

[Scotophor]

So, do I understand this correctly? The blobby soldering is a bad job and not done for a specific purpose and it was done in the factory?

Then I would do the same as Jorge. I wouldn´t make the Phone better than it was. As long as it doesn´t inhibit it serviceability, of course.

In case of repairs I would even try to solder the same blobby connections, so all the connections look the same and the reparation will not stand out. [...] Otherwise you´d be upgrading, pimping or enhancing the telephone [past] its Original state.

I know I'm coming late to this party but I would agree, that soldering is a poor job. I will defer to others with regard to whether it was done at the factory. There MAY have been a specific purpose for making such large blobs, which has been lost to history, and may or may not seem logical to us today if we ever learn what it was.

As far as restoration vs. over-restoration goes, I also am against most over-restorations. For older pinball and other arcade machines I've worked on in the past, I even kept on hand a roll of 50/50 tin/lead solder, which looks and works very differently than the 60/40 or 63/37 solders usually used in later decades for electrical work. This appears to be the same type used in the photo above.

[Phonesrfun]

The blobby solder joints on the spade connectors and other connectors in your photo looks original to me.  I have seen them often in older sets, even Western Electric.  The first 302's and older subsets all look that way.  I would not change them.