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1941 Mahogany Monophone

Started by Stockdale, November 13, 2011, 07:15:57 PM

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Stockdale

Hay All,
Latest antique store find.  What Have I got?  Any ideas?   
I know it is a 1941 Monophone in mahogany?  I think is what the brown is called.  Seems to be in excellent condition.  all there and even the cords look great.  Handset cord I believe is original and in excellent condition.  Not sure the line cord is original, but i do know the line cord is old.  4 prong not so old. (I remember installing them, so they can't be to old.....  LOL). 
Phone is in untouched condition.  just as I found it on the shelf.  Cost me $40.  I thought it a bargain .  What do you all think?
What information can anyone else add. 
Hope the pics come out good.
Thanks for your help.

paul-f

Your instincts are good.  It's an incredible bargain.

Congratulations!

It will look stunning once polished.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

AE_Collector

#2
Gee what do we all think? I have decided that I am just not meant to ever have one of these. I have been so close so many times but just keep striking out!

It isn't a 1941, that is just part of the model number. It is an automatic Electric Type 40 which were made from about 1939 to almost 1960.

That is probably worth $1500. Congratulations!

Terry

LarryInMichigan

Bargain is an serious understatement!  The handset cord alone is worth more than $40.  Be careful with the gold parts.  They are most probably plated with real GOLD.  Ambitious polishing will remove the gold.

Larry

Greg G.

Holy Moly!  $40 is a steal!  Most antique stores around here are cluelessly overpriced.  A Find Of The Month contender!
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

GG

#5
Stockdale, all I can say is Holy Cow!, and that's a candidate for November's Find of the Month. 

<edit> eventually entered into and WON Find of the Month November 2011. (Terry)

Stockdale

WOW!!!  I thought it was nice, and probably $100 phone, but didn't think it was a $1500 rare phone!!!!  :o  :o
Posted as 1941 based on the receiver & transmitter having the '41 date on them.  See pics. One on receiver says "AE CO 41"  Xmitter says "type 41".  Not sure how to date this phone.  Should I open the phone and look inside for matching dates?  Rubber around base has dried out and has some cracks in it, but that is all I see wrong with the phone.  I am sure the 4 prong has been added at some time, but line cord may have been original then.  Is that right?  Have a number of the woven handset cords on different phones, but this is probably the best one.  Didn't know they were that $$$ now either.   :o
Are the dial and bands really gold plate?  Looks like zero wear on the dial finger holes.  Actually zero wear on the whole phone for that matter.  There is also a gold plated metal bar on top between the buttons.  Almost like a handle to pick up with.  I know some of the AE's didn't have this bar, and there wasn't an easy way to pick them up, and hence a lot of them have busted cases.  :(  Almost past this one up as it seemed just two polished ya know.  Till I looked at the bottom and saw that, yea it was a "real" Monophone and should be worth more than $40.   ;D  I usually find them around here in the $25-$75 range for standard black ones.  What else can anyone tell me about this phone.
Think I should post in "find of the month" then?
Love this site! Thanks for the help.

Doug Rose

Congrats.....a truly wonderful find. You should be very happy with it.  It looks as if it was never used. A find that you will never forget where you found it and how much you paid for it. What a great phone....Doug
Kidphone

LarryInMichigan

The "Type 41" refers to the model of the handset.  It is not a  date.  The phone was probably made in the late 1940s to mid 1950s.  The bar in the cradle is a carrying handle, but with a phone like that, I would be very cautious when carrying it.

I can barely imagine anything competing with this for the find of the month.

Larry

stub

#9
Stockdale,
               
                         :o :o WOW  :o :o   Great find!!
           
      You will need to get a base gasket to finish it up. I think Gary Goff has them for about $ 12. Send him a e-mail and ask for a base gasket for a AE- 40.
                                                 gdgoff@gmail.com     Again WOW!!    stub
Kenneth Stubblefield

Dan

Beautiful and worth a ton!! It is nice when we can get a jewel cheap! :o
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

Greg G.

Quote from: Doug Rose on November 14, 2011, 08:24:34 AM
It looks as if it was never used.

I was thinking the same thing, it looks like NOS.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

LarryInMichigan

Quote from: Brinybay on November 15, 2011, 12:35:24 AM
Quote from: Doug Rose on November 14, 2011, 08:24:34 AM
It looks as if it was never used.

I was thinking the same thing, it looks like NOS.

I have wondered about these high-end phones and who had them.  My guess would be that these lived in fancy homes where there were many other phones and may have been connected in a parlor more for show than for use.  Just a guess...

Larry


JorgeAmely

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on November 13, 2011, 08:04:12 PM
Bargain is an serious understatement!  The handset cord alone is worth more than $40.  Be careful with the gold parts.  They are most probably plated with real GOLD.  Ambitious polishing will remove the gold.

Larry

I agree with Larry 100%. Please, do not polish the gold trimmed parts. That is the way the factory produced them, in 24k, satin finished gold.
Jorge

GG



If you've got experience refurbishing AE 40s, you could clean that one with a soft clean rag dampened with lukewarm water.  But if you don't have experience doing AE 40s, then get on Ebay and find a couple of scroungy-looking examples to use as test cases first. 

AE appears to have made their 40s in three levels of "trim." 

The basic 40 was all black, with no chrome or other decorative trim aside from the fingerstop and hookswitch buttons always being chromed for durability reasons. 

The next level up from there had a choice of black and other colors, with chrome bands around the handset caps, chrome dial fingerwheel, and chrome pick-up bar between the hookswitch plungers. 

Lastly, the ones with gold plated bands, dial, and pick-up bar. 

This enabled the telcos to charge premium rates for the more expensive versions, thereby helping to cross-subsidize basic service so more people could afford to have phones in the first place.  (Think of it as a voluntary progressive tax:-)

Larry, those high-end phones would be found in places such as corporate board rooms and wealthy households, where they were often specified by interior designers as part of the complete design plan for the rooms they were installed in.  It was usual for an average family to have one phone that got heavy use, but a wealthy family might have phones in four or five rooms in a larger house, where each of them got 1/N of the total usage.  A phone in a board room might be used only during the quarterly meetings, so it would get even lighter usage.  This is how some of the examples of bright-colored AE phones turn up in such good condition.

Occasionally a very wealthy family who were heavily engaged in the business and civic life of a community, might have a home PBX to facilitate the management of the household (e.g. household staff who handled various tasks) in much the same manner as a small company. 

All of those premium-rate systems and equipment, helped subsidize universal service for everyone. 

Today household PBXs have become common in upper middle class homes as well, and for folks who run small businesses from their homes (and for people such as ourselves!).  And today's home theatre systems had no comparable equivalent in the first half of the 20th century, even among folks for whom cost was no impediment.