Vintage Mahogany Western Electric – They’re Still Out There!

When I first began to buy telephones I was unaware that certain colors are more rare than others. I just bought phones that looked good to me. First a yellow desk phone, then an avocado wall phone. I really like the telephones that I remembered growing up with. To hear the loud ring of my first wall telephone was very exciting. With all of today’s electronic ringing telephones I had forgotten what a great sound the old dual harmonic brass bells made. I looked for deal on phones on eBay and bought one after the other. I learned to tinker with them and learned to fix them up—maybe making one ring that didn’t. One of my purchases was a box full of wall telephones. When I say a “box full” I think there were six wall phones in the box. I got the whole package for twenty dollars plus the shipping cost. There was nothing too spectacular in the box, or so I thought. There was really only one that looked like it had some potential to fix-up and maybe resell again. But I shoved it aside hoping to get back to it later. Well “later” turned out to be over a year later. I picked up the phone and dusted it off. I was planning on cleaning it up and putting it for sale on eBay. I’m sure someone would like a brown wall phone but it wasn’t a color I was excited about. But I wanted to make sure that I called the phone by its correct Western Electric color. Western Electric had official color names. Red is “Cherry Red”, dark blue is “Mediterranean Blue” and there are two tones of beige, “Light Beige” and “Rose Beige”. I did not want to call this brown phone just “brown” so I had to seek the advice of a seasoned telephone collector. I had consulted with all the reference materials that I knew of at the time and could not find the color listed. I had learned that on the back side of each dial there was a “color code” that Western Electric used when assembling the phones. This particular brown phone has a color code of -54. Again, I couldn’t find anywhere that showed the name of -54. So I e-mailed a phone collector and asked if he knew what “they” called -54. He replied very quickly and asked if that was a brown phone that I had. Often times dials were changed and a dial that was originally made for let’s say, a red phone (color code -53) may have later been changed to a different color. So just because someone had a dial marked -54 that did not mean the phone was in fact brown. I was told the color code of -54 was Mahogany Brown. The collector asked if I intended on selling the phone. He asked that should I decide to sell the phone please let him know when it was listed on eBay as he would be interested in bidding on it. He gave me no clue as to what the value might be. In fact the value is dictated on what someone is willing to pay at the time of the sale. A different price may result at different times.

Afterward I spoke with a couple other collectors. I mentioned having a brown, err, Mahogany Brown model 554. Each said the same thing. They said it was rare and in fact in their years of collecting telephones had never seen one in person. The model was discontinued in 1958. It was only made a few short years, maybe four. It was then that I decided to start “collecting” telephones. Specifically telephones from this era—the 1950’s and 1960’s—the years that I was born through my childhood and into adulthood. So the first telephone of my “collection” began with the one most difficult to find. If I sold this phone then I wouldn’t have it anymore, would I? What would be the point of selling it?

Since that time I have picked up some very nice “soft plastic” telephones from the 1950’s. Both desk sets (model 500’s) and the wall version (the 554’s). But the one that really means the most to me is my Mahogany Brown wall phone that came in a big box with six others—at a cost of about five dollars each. It’s not perfect, but it is a Western Electric, it is all original and it is Mahogany Brown. Also since then I have been fortunate enough to pick up its brother, (or sister) a Mahogany Brown model 500 from 1954. I am very pleased to have both of these telephones in my “collection”—albeit a humble one.

The lesson I preach here is these rare colored phones are still out there in America. Maybe in someone’s basement or attic, or out in the barn. To the collector that is the hope that drives them, whether or not they are looking for that rare candlestick phone or a rare colored plastic set. There is a chance that one might be inside this Estate Sale, or yard sale, or with the junk from Grandma’s attic. So keep looking—they’re out there!

I hope you enjoy the photos of my two Mahogany Brown telephones. If you have a similar story to share, please do. Lots of collectors have their first rare find etched into their memories. We’d all love to hear about them!