Four years ago I had the chance to buy 26 Ericofons in one sale. Most of them were complete and it was my biggest buy so far.

Last week I was able to buy another lot. It is quite a huge lot, not containing many complete Ericofons, but quite some shells, chassis, dials and a diversity of other parts. It feeds my lifetime supply of Ericofon spare parts. And of course there is the opportunity to put some complete phones together as well.

Early 2023 I got in contact with the famous General Dare (not his real name) from the United Kingdom. We met online and we have been talking about our shared passion for Ericofons in some long phone conversations. In the end we agreed that I could buy his old stock remains and last week we went to to collect it all.

In the late 1990’s General Dare reworked original Ericofon shells with his own designed digital DTMF keypad/chassis. A modernized Ericofon that said goodbye to the pulses permanently. Unfortunately his business stopped after a few years. In the end of the 1990’s digitization was going very rapidly and it was hard for small companies to keep up the standards. Also the weight and balance of the General Dare Ericofons was not optimal because of the new (better) speaker and the heavy, partly metal, chassis.

So we booked a ticket for the Eurotunnel and a B&B for 2 nights and off we went for a nice weekend to the UK. It was a good excuse for a short trip, from Friday to Sunday. A drive from The Netherlands through Belgium to the north of France is only a few hours. In Calais we put the car on the train and 35 minutes later we arrived in Folkestone, UK. It is true what they say about rain and England.

On Sunday morning we visited General Dare on his farm on the English countryside. His geese were welcoming us with a lot of noise once we approached the fence. After a tour through the premises it was time to check out the “merchandise”. He had quite a large pile of Ericofon parts in a barn; 3 dirty and dusty boxes with even dustier and dirtier parts in them. Not even looked at in the past 25 years I expect. We had a bit of trouble getting it all in the trunk of the car, but with some squeezing we managed. Once all was packed we had a delicious coffee on the porch of their lovely farmhouse and had some nice conversations about a lot of things. I even learned that there was a thing called a Bug a Salt 3.0 Orange Crush 😉

Thank you for your hospitality J and S! It was a pleasure meeting you both.

This is just a part of what was there… In the top of the picture there are a few nice colors and some complete sets. But most of the lot are parts: shells, chassis, dial faces, ear-caps, finger wheels, and much, much more. So if you need anything…

Here you see 3 generations of keypads/chassis of the General Dare that I found in the lot. The one the left almost weights 400 gr. This is the most common version, either with a white of a red button (which resembles the original red button). The one in the middle is 300 gr and the version on the right only 180 gr. The keypad from the latter is very similar to the Ericofon 700. I haven’t seen many of the middle and right keypads. As said, weight and balance were some drawbacks of the General Dare version. But also rapid electronic innovations and an open market were not helping General Dare as a small enterprise.

Unfortunately J did not want to include an unopened box with an Orange BPO Ericofon inside. But I knew that already upfront so it was not a disappointment. When I saw the box, it was a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat experience. You do not know 100% sure what is in the box. If you open it you will know but then it is not unopened anymore… 🙂 Nice.

My goal with this set is to restore as many original Ericofons as possible. The first sorting already has been done the evening I arrived home with my stuff. But first I need to get me a few bottles of soap and start cleaning…

I am very happy with this lot, it was all worth the ride and a good excuse to drive ot the UK!

Finally, finally finally!

Finally I have got my Wedgewood New Case Flat. It was on the top of my most wanted list for ages.

It was so hard to find this one. In all the years that I have been collecting Ericofons, I have never seen this color/model combination for sale anywhere. There are some people I know who have it, but they know it is rare so there was no chance to get it from them. I was truly convinced that this one was only sold in the US, but I found one in Europe instead.

Actually it was a bit of a gamble, again. Which I am not very fond of. 🙂 But the pictures on the auction site were taken from strange angles. See the picture above as an example. On top the seller did not respond to any of my questions. I guessed it was a new case, but I was not 100% sure. When you see the linnen cord that is attached, you expect an old case. On the other hand, the dial is a bit newer. As the pictures were so light I also thought of a Nordic Blue for a moment.

As we were away for a summer holiday when the auction ended, I had to file my maximum bid 5 days before the auction end time. Internet was not a given during our trip, for sure not at the end of the auction. Nothing to worry about you would think. But there was one other person who recognized how rare this one was. So the grand final was quite exciting I noticed later. In the end I won the auction, still in my budget, but higher than I initially expected. With a big thump it dropped into my mailbox today.

I would not know why this Wedgewood model is so rare. The color itself is not so hard to get, but this particular shape is just not that obvious for some reason in Wedgewood. Anyway, this beauty from 1961 is in perfect shape and very welcome.

The series of transparent posts has again another peak. Last week I received another Transparent Ericofon. This time it was a new case wedge. Strangely enough all three clear Ericofons were bought mid-June in the past 3 years. But all three from different sources.

This new clear Ericofon was part of an auction of vintage toys. It was visible in an auction lot with exotic toys from the 1950’s and 1960s. Actually the toys were close to garbage as they were worth nothing or in bad state as far as I could see. So were the photographic skills of the auction house. I could hardly see if the Ericofon was a wedge or flat and in what condition it was. While zooming in, the year on the microphone became visible, the advantage of a clear shell, and my conclusion was a wedge. So in the end it was a bit of a gamble on the quality.

Not one phone collector was present to judge the lot to it’s actual value and I had a bargain this time.

As said, the phone is in perfect condition. No yellowing of the clear plastic case at all. No cracks, just a few scratches from usage. Unfortunately the dial face is a regular North Electric and not a transparent version like with the one from 1963. That would have been nice, but this is just a detail.

I hope that some other June in the future I can add the Transparent 700 to my collection as well. That would be great!

This beautiful Persian Gray turned 60 years. From the outside you cannot tell because the shell has not yellowed at all which is often the case with gray models. Some colors suffer more from sun and smoke aging and gray is one of them. But not this beauty!

However, from the inside there are multiple signs that this Ericofon is indeed 60 years old and therefore originating from 1964. This is by the way the oldest wedge shaped shell in my collection.

The age can normally be verified from at least 3 points on the inside. The shell often indicates the week number and year of production (32 64), the microphone does the same (6-64). But also the chassis is giving a similar hint (31 64).

Although this phone is very consistent in its age, not all Ericofons are. Dates are not always there, or readable. But if they are, the phones are mostly put together from older and newer parts. That is quite normal as production of parts and assembly are 2 different processes. They are real time machines 🙂

Earlier in May there was a morning where the warm morning sun was peeking into the house. It almost felt like summer started when the beams were landing on the shiny section of my collection. Unfortunately the rest of May was extremely wet and cloudy.

1 Chrome, 2 Aztec Gold Plated and 2 Gold Plated Ericofons try to bring summer into the house. It is a good start of the day.

Slowly more and more ‘small’ Ericofon items drop into my collection. The last non-telephone item, although it came with a nice Orange 700, is a complete box.

This set from 1977 came, besides the Ericofon, with the following:

• Original box
• Instruction manual
• Mounting wall box
• Mounting instructions and material

It is very nice that besides Ericofons, which are harder and harder to get at this stage, small original items drip into the collection as well from time to time. It just makes the whole story more complete.

Time for an update with another impure Ericofon. The first post of the ‘pure-series‘ was already 6,5 years ago. More information on the background story can be read in this post from 2017.

This month I could add the 6th metallic painted Nichco to my collection: a metallic gold this time. In 2019, when travelling to Norway, I also bought a gold metallic Ericofon, but this one, turned out to be a locally painted Ericofon for an exhibition. Sometimes you have to take a chance…

There are some typical characteristics with which you can determine if it is a Nichco painted model or not. The most obvious one is the sticker on the back, which proves it is an ‘official’ Nichco.

In total I have spotted 12 different Nichco metallic colors in all types of new cases. I am not trying to get all Nichco colors in all types… one of each color should be more than enough. So I am already halfway! …I guess.

When telephones were not yet that obvious for everyone a manual would be needed to understand how this ‘modern’ technology would work. I am not sure on the year of origin of this manual card.

Nowadays the manual that comes with a high tech device is not much more. Technically we are today more intelligent of course but in other areas I have strong doubts. It must have decayed somewhere in recent history :-).