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 :-).