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Estate Sale Finds.....Dial Card Original?

Started by John S, February 01, 2014, 09:09:41 AM

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John S

Morning,

I went to estate sale yesterday.  Pick up some old phones, ringers, ETC.  They are dingy, dusty.  They will need some TLC.  Since its winter I will have time to play with them.  The owner worked for Bell System.  He had tons of items.  I paid 130.00 for the whole lot.  What caught my eye was the dial card on two of the phones.  It has the bell system logo on it.  The print is more of a blue.  I always thought they were printed in black.  There were a few more at the sale, but they have sold.  They were in yellow old envelopes.  My question...how do I know if they were reprinted or the real deal?  They are very cool.  Here are some pictures...

John S.


Dave203

That's a great lot of phones you got there John. And all for a good price too! They look great and should clean up nicely. As for the dial card, I think they were blue and then black later but I'm not sure when that was. I just konw I've seen them in the blue ink before and the old bell logo. Maybe someone has a timeline on these in a book somewhere?

Have fun cleaning them up. I know I would :D

-Dave

Mr. Bones

Good morning, John.

     Wow, it certainly looks like you got your $130.00 worth! What a great assortment, looks like there's some gems in there.

     I have also seen the blue-ink dial cards, on phones that appeared to be unmodified or tampered with. Your close-up picture certainly appears to be a very vintage, original specimen. It lacks the artifacting common to many computer-printed versions. Also the thickness of the stock, to my eye, might make it somewhat prohibitive to run through a typical computer printer.

     One could handily do cards of this thickness, with the crisp resolution apparent, on a small letterpress, but those are about as common nowadays as Dodo eggs. They take a lot of experience to get set up, and to produce high-quality, consistent results. I did letterpress and offset printing for many a long year.

     Just one's opinion; I will certainly defer to those more learned in the history and timelines of the dial cards.

     Best regards, have a great weekend!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

John S

Thanks for the reply!  Yes, looking closer they look original.  I am just use to seeing them in black ink.  I took some more close up and some other items.  I would love to see a timeline of dial card. 

John

Doug Rose

John.....what a great haul! You done good......Doug
Kidphone

WesternElectricBen

Great Haul!

I really like the gray phones, and the pink one. Is the pink wall phone soft plastic?

Ben

John S

The pink one is not soft plastic.  Its dated 1960.  All the dates match on it.  It should clean up nice. 

John

WesternElectricBen

Oh, well, it will still be a nice phone.

I see that the two gray sets (2500 and 500) both have exclusion plungers, those are pretty nice finds, do you have handsets for them?

Ben

John S

Hi Ben,

No I don't have handset for them.  I looked all over for them but could not find them.  They are still nice phones.  Could use a clean up.  The color has held up nice on both of them...

John

WesternElectricBen

I have a handset I will probably never use, it is the correct color, and non modular, but it is for some gray device.

Ben

david@london

john -
that bell logo on the numbercard would seem to be the style introduced in 1939.
there is some info on bell logos at beatriceco.com............http://tinyurl.com/m6klf4k

the blue card is on the numbercard archive too, but there are no dates/timelines .......http://tinyurl.com/o76ozsy

Sargeguy

That looks like a legit card, I think they were from the mid 50s.  It is commonly reproduced in several colors.  I like the combination on the subset!
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

John S

Thanks everybody....

I click on the link....the dial card has really change over the years.  There is great information on there. 

Ben I will let you know about the headset once I decide what I will do with them.

John

jsowers

Logo cards came in many different colors. I have a collector friend who got two Teletrainer 500s complete with original yellow Bell logo cards. They were from 1957 or 58, I think. I attached a scan below.

You certainly got a nice assortment and some great projects there, and for a good price too. Those phones don't look like they've been touched in a long, long time, so I wouldn't worry about any reproductions. What is that AE with the knob? Very odd looking. You even got a cast iron frying pan. Make some cornbread!

Jonathan

John S

I think the metal wall phone was used in a hotel.  Its very cool.  Its missing the hook to hang the handset.....Here are ore pics...