WE Imperial

[bingster]

There was a brochure on ebay recently that advertised the Continentals.  So there was some advertising of some sort.  I don't know if the brochure includes the Imperials or not, since only the front cover was shown.  I'll let you know when it arrives.

[bellsystemproperty]

Ooh these continentals are interesting... I never even heard of them until now.

[JimH]

Wow!  I'd love to have a scan or copy of that!  I've never seen anything advertising the continentals before.  Nice find!

[bingster]

The brochure arrived today, but since I don't have a scanner, I have to make do with photographing the brochure.  Unfortunately, there's no mention of the Imperial, and no images other than the one on the front.  There is a mention of the price though, which is nice.  Click on the thumbnails for full size images:

[jsowers]

Bingster, that is one nice brochure! And a rare one! I've never seen anything like it. From the size it looks as if it could have been a bill insert. I've seen bill inserts for the Princess, but never the Continental.

It does bear out what I have in a WE catalog from the 50s that mentions the phone but doesn't mention colors, that these phones were promoted for bedside use because of their small footprint. Marketing was a new thing back then, and the Bell System was into marketing early on.

It's great to see the colors available too, and the nice color matched dial center like on the 302. It's odd that these only came in three colors. I've seen blue ones and always wondered if they were the real thing. Maybe somebody else knows?

[bingster]

I was a little disappointed at the size, but it makes sense if it's a bill insert.  The piece is a single sheet of paper measuring 6 x 6, folded in half to 3 x 6.  It's also printed on a very lightweight paper, which would probably reduce postage.

I always assumed the Continental came in all the standard 302 plastic colors, so I was surprised to see just three colors on the brochure.  I've never seen a blue, but I seem to recall having seen an Old Rose before.  Perhaps at the very beginning they only had the three colors and then added the other two later?  I don't know.

[bingster]

It took me long enough, but I finally joined the Imperial family.  There are a couple small spots of color loss on the front lip just below "7" but it's not too bad.  The cradle ears are in remarkably good condition with no loss at all.  I had to shorten the mounting cord by six inches to get rid of some very damaged conductors at the subset end.  I moved the restraint back and spaded the fresh ends.  The main reason I wanted this one, though, is the plastic handset.  I decided to accept the spots to get the handset.  All in all, I'm very happy with it. 

I have to say that I'm really hating the handset cord, though.  It's no wonder these are usually found with cork pads, because the cord doesn't stretch very far before it starts pulling the phone toward you (mine doesn't have the pads).  It's fine for a display phone, but if I actually use this one at any point, it's going to need a straight handset cord.

[Jester]

That's a very nice phone, Bingster!  It's hard to find one with the finish looking that good.  Is that a 6D dial?

[bingster]

No, the dial is actually a 6A, whatever that is.   It had a black case that I put a quick coat of white on so that it didn't stick out like a sore thumb.

[HobieSport]

What year is your nice Imperial, Bingster? What years were they made? This is all new to me.

[bingster]

The receiver element is from 1952, but besides that, everything dates to the very end of 1955 or the very beginning of 1956.  I don't know how long they were made, but it seems that none of them date to before 1955.  Going by the dates I've seen, it seems they were only produced for a couple years.

[Dennis Markham]

Great looking phone Bingster.  Welcome to the Imperial world.  When you're ready to get rid of that handset cord, let me know.  It looks pretty nice to me!  I have a silver one with five cork pads, but my gold one has none and no evidence of having any.  The Gold with no cork pads also has a vinyl coiled cord.  Perhaps it is a later model and they stopped putting the cork on then.  The leather bottom seems kind of smooth.  Maybe they dried out over the years.  But it does slide a bit during use.

[AET]

Very nice find in very nice condition.  I think I recall this one on eBay?  Sure is clean, blows mine out of the water! Congrats!

[bingster]

Sharp eyes, Tom--it was on ebay.  It ended around two weeks ago. 

[AET]

I had my eye on it.  But decided to let some other lucky collector have it, since I already have one.