The "jsowers" Phone Collection Pictures

[jsowers]

What about the rest of you?? Come on!!   Post pictures of your collection. 400 plus members and only a handful of our collections. I showed you mine, show me yours!....Doug

OK, Doug, you asked for it. My display is nowhere near as nice as some I've seen. I could invest in better shelves and put less clutter on them, but I like to merge all my collections. I grew up collecting things. My parents were into antique auctions from when I was a kid, so collecting is in my blood.

This picture was taken just after Christmas, in January 2009, in my living room. the phones on the shelves haven't changed much since this was taken. These are mostly soft plastic 500s and 554s, with turquoise phones from the 60s thrown in.

Top row, from left to right, they are dark gray, brown (straight cord), green 500P, white, red (red straight cord), metallic gold, ivory (from 8-58), pink, dark beige, turquoise, dark blue, and yellow (gray coil cord). The sign in the back is a phone booth sign selling extension phones for Christmas. I also collect old German glass Christmas ornaments and old Christmas lights and reflectors--you can see them on the tree at right.

Second row, left to right, they are dark beige two-tone, green two-tone, red two-tone, ivory painted two-tone (a 510 two-line), aqua blue, light beige and light gray. Most of the smaller 500 promos are plastic and the ones on the right are chalkware and very early.

Third row, left to right, they are an early black swithhook 554, a light gray hard plastic 554 (how did that get in there?), a turquoise 554 blocked by the chair, soft plastic 554s in white, light beige (8-58), ivory, green, light gray, pink, yellow, red, dark beige, and hidden behind the tree is the dark blue 554. The pink one sits next to its original box. The light beige Princess is a display model, with no guts. The red 500 behind the red 554 is a 511X Interphone phone.

As for why I don't mount the 554s on the wall like Stephen, the wall on the left has a pocket door inside it and I really don't want to mess that up.

Under the wing chair is a Teletrainer and another phone box, and propped against the chair is a Bell System film and most of my paper advertising collection in a notebook. Behind the chair is my Telephone Planned Homes sign (pink) and hanging on the chair is an operator headset.

I leave all the cords on the phones and try to make them neat, but the one dangling behind the shelves goes to the green 500P, connected to a transformer so it can light. I don't have my phones in numerical order by the color code. That never occurred to me as I was putting them on the shelves. I did put small boxes under some of the phones to raise them up so they could be seen.

This collection took about ten years to compile, and in the early days of eBay it was a lot easier to find some of these phones. Some of them were not cheap even then. One or two of these phones came from thrift stores.

I have two more pictures, from the dining room, if you're not bored to death already.

[Russ Kirk]

WOW!  You have nice collection. I especially like the miniature phones.  You can see in my earlier posting photo I have a few also.

If I may say, you can get rather cheap shelves and double stack them for displays.  My black shelves in the earlier posting came from Big Lots for only $17 each.  Heck, once I filled them up with phones, people look at the phones and not the cheap shelving I bought. 

Anyway,  your collection is really impressive,  you have many phones I am still seeking.

Yes,  please post more photos because I will look at the phones and not the display.

Russ. 

[jsowers]

This is in my dining room. My house is only two bedrooms, so I don't have room for a room dedicated to phones.

On the top shelf is my AE collection. I live in what once was AE territory, covered by an independent telco since the late 1800s. There are suprisingly few phones available at yard sales here, so all of these came from eBay except for the small SpaceMaker on the left. My brother-in-law found it in a house that was going to be demolished. The candlestick is a design-line that's out of place, and it came from a yard sale.

On the second shelf are my Princess phones and matching promos and some literature about them.

In the second picture are my older WE phones and below that are more design-line phones, a hardhat and buttset and climbers, and the Teletrainer makes another appearance. The manual 302 and Mickey were found in thrift stores. I've added a Continental and an Imperial since this was taken.

In the third picture are my Trimlines on the top two shelves (this is circa 2005 and I've gotten a few others since then) and some character and design-line phones. On the bottom shelf are the 2702s.

[jsowers]

Nice phones, guys.  Jonathan, your Country Junction----it's missing the handset.  What's the story there?   I have one with a broken handset.  I'd love to find a replacement.   It's on my list of things to do.

Dennis, the handset and straight modular cloth cord are there, just lying on the shelf instead of hanging on the switchhook. It's because it extends down below the phone when hanging on the switchhook and I don't have it wall mounted. Also I have the optional Country Junction shelf in front of the phone and it hides the handset.

The handset is the most often damaged piece on the Country Junction. From dropping the handset, I think. The earcap often lost its finish from all the ear contact and the mouthpiece is none too sturdy, so it breaks apart at the mount.

Good luck finding a good one. I have one or two that need handsets too.

[Doug Rose]

Jonathan,,,,really nice collection. I love the colors. You have a super display. You should be very proud of them....Doug