Ivory Western Electric

[unbeldi]

Northern Electric made Uniphones for the Provincial and independent Canadian telephone companies, and 302s for Bell Canada, so that may explain why only the Uniphones are shown in the catalog. Similarly, the WE and Graybar catalogs show phones and parts without Bell markings and a "W" suffix after the part number, but that doesn't mean that WE  302s with "Bell System" weren't  made by WE.

If so, I think that needs to be qualified with a date range, because in 1955 302s as well as Uniphones are listed in the Northern Electric catalog.  The 302s are not suffixed with W, while the 250s are.

[Ktownphoneco]

Northern Electric did make the metal case 302 model at their plant in Montreal.     They also switched to thermoplastic during WWII, however the metal zinc cases were recycled for a number of years, and were put back in service with components dated accordingly.      The 302's didn't show up in Northern catalogs until the T-8 catalog printed in 1954.       As best I can tell, the "T" series catalogs were printed for distribution to the independents, and not Bell Canada.       The Uniphone sets were developed by Northern in the mid 1930's.      Several Uniphone model No: 1's were sent to the head office of the Bell telephone Company of Canada in Montreal for testing in mid summer of 1935.      The set was approved for service, and went into general production in September of that same year, 1935.    At that time, Northern was providing telephone equipment to independent telephone companies throughout North America, and based on what I see on eBay, there appears to have been more Uniphones sold to independent telephone companies in the U.S.A., than in Canada.     Although the Uniphone is basically a 302 with a different shape, Bell Canada decided not to use the set, and chose instead, to wait for the release of the 302 for general production by Western Electric.      Once the 302 was approved for general production, Northern could then start producing the set for Bell Canada, which they did.     The 302, as was the case with it's American counterpart, became the workhorse of the Bell System here in Canada.
Enjoy the evening. 

[Doug Rose]

There may have been overlap of WE black metal and thermoplastic 302 housings in 1942, but not ivory. New, painted metal Ivory, Rose, Blue, Gray-Green, Pekin Red 302s were manufacture discontinued as of 1-2-41 per C30.111, Iss 4--they were replaced by thermoplastic sets. And WR-C30.011, Issue 1, 8-5-42 indicates that "the manufacture of colored station sets has been discontinued." Production resumed in late 1948-early 1949.

However, Northern Electric never made plastic 302 housings in colors other than black. The "Northern Electric" color plastic 302s that have shown up on Ebay lately have been assembled with WE housings and handset handles and caps, and probably WE cords, but the other parts were Northern Electric.

Doug, which company--NE or WE--is marked on the handset?  I was surprised that the Ebay link still works, but, of course, the pictures are gone. http://www.ebay.com/itm/230988535068

David....it is a marked Northern....Doug

[WEBellSystemChristian]

In an effort to divert this topic specifically away from prewar Ivory, I'll post my three early '50s 300 series sets.
The two 302s came from a thrift shop in Illinois. I saw an ad on Craigslist showing a multi-level shelf full of phones, including three 302s. After making a family outing out of it, I came back with two of those three beautiful Ivory 302s; someone had already bought one of the three before I could get to it! 
The dial version was in far worse condition than the manual; the dial was immobile, both cords were lopped, and the front left corner is cracked badly. The manual version is in really good shape; very few stress cracks (none on the corners), original cords, and a matching dial blank in great shape! About a month or so ago, I decided to break down and really clean both phones; disassembling both phones almost completely and giving them a thorough cleaning and polishing. The dial one had a repro brown cloth cord standing in for a decent Ivory cord. I recently attached a vinyl cord designed for a 302 on it, and it looks good, almost better than an OPW! I decided not to fix the corner crack; even if I fixed it or had someone fix it, I would always know it's there, just hidden or glued.

The Ivory 354 doesn't have much of a story, I bought it on ebay a year ago for $39, IIRC. There's a topic for it around here somewhere. It has a ton of stress cracks and an almost-broken-in-half handset that I still need to fix, but it's all original, and looks nice in the shelf despite the crack. I probably won't ever run into another one anytime soon, so I would regret selling it!

Mmm, don't these phones look like they were carved out of a brick of white chocolate?!?

Topic about 302s: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11415

Topic about 354: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11667