A consignment firm in Cumberland RI offered a group of excellent early phones for sale on eBay recently. It was the finest grouping on eBay I have ever seen. The phones were very early, some marked "National Bell Telephone" (predecessor of ABT). Along with the phones were some miscellaneous CO equipment. The phones were "barn fresh" and were well preserved despite some missing parts. Since Cumberland is 20 minutes from my house I went to view the items first hand. The lot came from a local auction in New Hampshire.
National Bell Coffin $6800
The phone is missing a few pieces and the crank is broken, but other than that it is well preserved.
Post & Co. coffin $9,9999
The phone is complete and in excellent condition. There was some damage to the case resulting from switching out the magneto and ringers. The phone has a burled walnut veneer that will really look nice once polished up.
Charles Williams ringer box $5200
This box went for about 10x the normal selling price. Is there something I am missing?
Charles Williams switch $3500!!!!🤯
I have no idea why this switch sold for $3500. My estimate was $150 at most.
NET&T top box $787
This is an excellent example of a NET&T box. These are made from parts leftover when Western Electric became the sole manufacturer of Bell Telephones. The shield was meant to cover the hole left by the friction drive magneto when it was replaced.
Charles Williams top box $654
This box was mis-labelled as the auctioneer did not notice the Charles Williams imprint on the cover. Pretty good condition overall except for the missing ringer and bells.
Large ringer (Possibly Charles Williams) $417
This is one of the pieces that makes me think the lot was associated with an early CO.
Yes, some very rare and very nice phones. Although, sold for too much. Somebody really wanted these,
The two top boxes were on the high side of the normal range. The coffins were around 50% higher than expected. The prices for the switch and ringer box are off by a factor of ten IMO
I'm a car guy, and I'm sickened whenever I see Barrett Jackson auctions and such, as it seems like it's just rich people where money is no object. Does anyone else think that this is happening with the telephone collecting hobby?
Quote from: CanadianGuy on March 31, 2019, 03:57:55 PM
I'm a car guy, and I'm sickened whenever I see Barrett Jackson auctions and such, as it seems like it's just rich people where money is no object. Does anyone else think that this is happening with the telephone collecting hobby?
Sure...it happens all the time. There is a different layers than us to collecting. 10K for a partial phone is no issue. Deep pockets will always win. The sad thing is if I saw it at a yard sale for $50, I would walk away from it....Doug
Coffin phones were wall mounted, and were used with a wall-mounted Blake transmitter or two receivers. Each part was considered a seperate component. They were usually not found on backboards.