The classic rotary phone is a part of telephone history. Many people still love and collect these vintage phones and they have become popular decorating items in today’s retro and mid century decor.
Most people still prefer to collect the original rotary dial telephone and not their push button cousins that came out as next generation telephones. Western Electric was the original manufacturer of these vintage rotary phones. Shopping for a vintage phone is easy using the internet for information.
The first thing you should do is identify which decade you would like your rotary dial telephone to be from. Learn as much as you can about phones from that decade to be certain that you are getting an original rotary phone and not a retro rotary phone. Some phones are reproduced and sold on Amazon and other internet sites. They look like the classic rotary phone but are new items and not sought after by most phone collectors.
Remember that when you purchase an original old phone you might need to restore it or have the phone ringer or phone cord replaced tow work with today’s modern phone systems.
You can check the underside of the telephone base and inside the ear piece and mouth piece of the bold old phone handset for dates that should indicate what year the vintage telephone was produced.
Online sites such as eBay and Craigslist are good sources for old phones, but use care to determine which rotary phone is best for your needs.
One of the most knowledgeable vintage rotary phone restoration experts in the country is Dennis Markham at Vintage Rotary Phones.
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