Ivory GPO 162L 1936

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    Delivery time:5-7 Days
  • Description

As good as you will find.

A pulse to tone unit can be fitted at £40 click box on check out.

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This is an an amazing find. It was in wonderful condition when found and has had no damage or parts replaced in its lifetime. I have taken the decision to restore this to fully working condition. It has been totally stripped down and rebuilt after each part has been cleaned and polished. I have fitted a later 200 series internals and rewired to the last and best wiring for this model to allow it to work perfectly to both dial out and receive perfectly. I have fitted a small internal bell using a specially made bracket so as not to damage the lead weight and so that it could be removed without leaving any sign of it being there. It has been fitted with an electronic microphone, a very best quality hand plaited braided handset cord and a GPO specification round plastic line in cord. The dial is a GPO No12 with a wonderful enamel alpha numeric dial face. note this telephone is made from the early thermosetting material Urea formaldehyde used on GPO coloured telephones up until around 1936. This material is very brittle and so very few survive in this condition. It also absorbed the atmosphere it was living in and so are usually badly nicotine stained. Because this material is very brittle it cracks along the seems partly because the metal parts inside expand at different rates in high or low temperatures. This one has some cracking as I have tried to show but this is very minor and perfectly normal. I can make a dial label with your information at no extra charge.

Now because this is a very special telephone I have retained the parts replaced to bring it up to modern speech etc. I am allowing the buyer of this telephone to buy these parts if they wish to revert it back to original themselves at a later date. This includes the microphone marked 1936, the ivory feet, the 1L receiver, the 162 internal block wiring and the two original ivory GPO braided line and and handset cords. I have take this unusual step because I think this may go to a collector.