Bavarian SA25

[countryman]

Looks like I eventually found one :-)
https://www.ebay.de/itm/314105971874
When Germany was united the first time in 1871, Bavaria reserved certain rights for itself, including the postal administration. Until the end of the first German republic (Weimar Republic) in 1933 this special status existed and Bavaria partly used different phones than the rest of Germany. One of these was the SA25, nicknamed Pferdefuss (Horse's foot), often mistakenly also Kuhfuss (cow's foot).
It was auctioned together with a Siemens wall phone by a thrift store in Nuremberg. I'm super curious what will arrive! It's one of the higher priced phones I won so far... will it be worth it? A good specimen would be a bargain... keep your fingers crossed!
BTW i might have a Siemens intercom to give away soon ;-)
 

[countryman]

The phone arrived and after a quick checkout I am very pleased with it. The capacitor is stamped 9.27 and the entire phone looks unmolested internally. Even the transmitter seems to be original. The inner part of the missing foot was found inside the phone. I will glue it in place so that the outer appearance is complete.
I have a receiver cap to go onto this Bavarian handset from a different phone, and will also find cords for this one.
A good cleanup and dial lubrication and this 95 year old phone will be good to go onto the VOIP line I suppose 
I wanted this thing for a while but did not think I could find one affordably. It seems I was in the right place at the right time now.

This phone is built very ingenious and compact. After taking off the bottom plate, a single elongated screw can be loosened and the entire upper part with cradle and dial twists off. Everything is easily accessible then.

[tubaman]

You did well - a rare phone and a very nice addition to your collection.

[Doug Rose]

You did well - a rare phone and a very nice addition to your collection.

I second that.....I would love to have one in my collection.....great find!

Find of the month!!!....Doug

[countryman]

Thanks tubaman and Doug 

I have now spliced in a new piece of handset cord into the chopped ends. This way the terminals will look as original as possible. The mounting cord will be done in the same way. The phone rings, dials, transmits and receives now!

[oldguy]

Great phone, can't wait to see it finished.

[countryman]

Here it is. I fitted an ADoS 27 "Walzenstecker" plug.

The phone works great. Only design flaw is, it is too lightweight and small for the dial which requires a fairly high force to turn. You have to lay down the handset on the desk and hold the phone with one hand while dialing. Maybe for this reason the bottom plate has a thread to bolt it to a mounting bracket.

[Jon Kolger]

Beautiful phone, but I am equally impressed by the plug.  I've never seen one like that before.

[countryman]

It has it's own Wikipedia article, but only in German (Google may help to translate): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walzenstecker

The plug is named ADoS ZB27 *), the socket ADo ZB50. I'm not sure if the numbers are the year of appearance, but the system wasn't overly common and was phased out in the 1960ies. Home phones were normally hardwired.
I suppose the system was developed from the phone jacks used in central offices, which would not be well suited for installation on walls due to their length. It is handy to use and gives good contact, I'm not sure why it was phased out.  The successor was not much more compact, but more awkward to use.

I believe I spotted a Walzenstecker ("cylinder plug") in a book that appeared 1977 upon the 100th anniversary of telephony. It shows a suggestion for a "mobile" phone system, the user brings his own handset to plug into a public socket, identifying himself with a plastic card. The possibility of wireless mobiles was ruled out in the article due to lack of available radio frequencies.

*) Anschlussdosenstecker Zentralbatterie = Connection socket plug central battery