French back board/box

[FABphones]

I found this in a French junk shop. I usually pass by wooden telephone items but for a ticket price of just €8 (about $9) it came home with me as I am in need of a backing board to pop a phone up in the little workshop. Whatever was attached to it is long gone and the holes where it was attached, filled in with dowling. There are vertical grooves to the rear of the board which I imagine are channels for wiring.

Nothing special about this that I can see, no dove tail joints, no box joints - instead using a fine tongue and groove join on the box.

I can't date this, and haven't quite decided which phone to mount on it, as this is the only wooden item in the collection.

Image below, as found.

[countryman]

At the price well worth picking it up.

[FABphones]

At the price well worth picking it up.

Thanks.            ......I bought ice cream the day before that cost more than this


This morning I had time to take a closer look at it. There are in fact Box Joints to the underneath (photo below), and two holes. These holes will help me figure out what phone could have been on this originally.

The two channels to rear begin to top, at two of the dowled holes and go down to the box, where there are two holes (untouched) for cable entry. The dowls are hand cut.

It's looking like there is some good age to this, and is not a later reproduction. I next need to research French telephones of the period and see if I can pin down likely companions.

[Pourme]

~

A nice easy project, this and the phone you select will display nicely. Howard's wood restorer will work wonders on that piece without sanding, etc.

In the end, more satisfying than ice cream & it lasts longer!

Nice piece!

[FABphones]

A nice easy project, this and the phone you select will display nicely. Howard's wood restorer will work wonders on that piece without sanding...

Thanks for that. Howard's sounds like something I would certainly like to have in my little workshop but unfortunately I cannot find it in the EU. I will search for something similar and hope it is as highly recommended.

I usually avoid adding anything wooden antique into the collection, my house is VERY old (Louis XV/XVI) so unsurprisingly woodworm (and other wood yummying mites) abound.

[FABphones]

Doing a little light detective work, this dates to approximately 1910. Called in France a 'boite à sel', as the style is very similar to the old wooden salt boxes. Image below shows an example of the type of magneto telephone it may well have been paired up with.

Wooden phone collecting isn't a route I want to follow, but if it's buddy turns up I'll consider it further.

[Jim Stettler]

Wooden phone collecting isn't a route I want to follow, but if it's buddy turns up I'll consider it further.




[/

Doing a little light detective work, this dates to approximately 1910. Called in France a 'boite à sel', as the style is very similar to the old wooden salt boxes. Image below shows an example of the type of magneto telephone it may well have been paired up with.

Wooden phone collecting isn't a route I want to follow, but if it's buddy turns up I'll consider it further.

It is what it is and you would most likely follow it out of intrigue.
Face it, you collect telephone and like accuracy.
That is why you are a GM,
You have the telephone fever aka telephonitis, I subscribe to the 'feed a fever' concept. It keeps life simple.
JMO,
Jim