Posted 8 years ago
Sammulan
(1 item)
I saw on the NBC Nightly News a story about a Los Angeles car junkyard (Adler Bros) that is closing it's doors soon. Went and it was pretty picked through and all the cars were seriously trashed and no cars worth salvaging. I'm sure the good stuff goes quick. Anyway a lot of cars were full of garbage and scrap parts.
For some reason I flipped over a piece of metal with some insulation bolted to it and industrial adhesive attaching it to another piece of metal. As you can see, it's an Associated Telephone Company Sign. Paid $6 and spent more than a few hours heating and scraping away the glue. Super annoying but then I read in a few places this is a rare sign b/c of the company.
Anyone have any info on the sign? I know it's 1920s double-sided porcelain. Not selling as I dig the sign and how I found it but anyone have an idea on value? Thanks!
Oh another tidbit in the sign. If you look closely, there are some wired sticking out. I believe someone used this to patch a hole in car's floorboards and used the sign to ground the electrical.
The reason it's taped in the corners is because I couldn't get the bolts off and dirt and insulation is still coming loose. I'll remove that soon. :)
Associated Telephone Company was formed in 1926, the company went bankrupt in 1933. The company reorganized and became General Telephone Corp in 1934. Your sign was used between 1934 to 1955. General Telephone Corp became GT&E
later to GTE. Your sign has a value between 150.00 to 200.00
Thanks Tom! The only other info I found on Associated Telephone Company was this:
http://telephonecollector.info/collectionsite/telephones_signs/
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=12584.0
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Telephone_Utilities_Company
I see similar Bell signs going for more in Etsy and EBay but those are I guess what people are asking and willing to pay. Again not looking to pay, just looking to tell a story. :)
The associated telephone company sign with the arrow going through it is very collectible telephone sign. The sign like yours is being reproduced and has not helped the value of the original. I went to work for General Telephone Company in 1964 and these sign were still in use at phone booths. I see the Bell System signs come on Ebay all the time at 300 to 400, but the keep coming back on time after time because there over priced.
Follow up question: if the company went bankrupt in 1933 and the name was changed to General Telephone Corp in 1934, why did they make or use signs with the original name afterwards from 1934 to 1955?
Also do you think it's correct based on how I found it it was being used to patch a hole in a car as well as ground the electrical. Was going to grind off the bolts as I think they're not original to the sign. Thoughts? :)
Changing out booth signs was a major cost to the telephone company, the signs had a low priority because of the man power it would take to change out all there signs. When I was work for GTE even in the late 1970's there were still Associated Telephone company signs still around. I remember driving through San Pedro, CA finding a Southern California Telephone Company sign in a Pacific Telephone Company area as late as 1978.
Thanks Tom for sharing your knowledge. The sign is not a flange sign as you can see. And it has 4 corner holes so could be flush with a wall but then why be double-sided? Was it hung from a ceiling or perpendicular to a wall in a frame or on top of a booth in a frame? How were they displayed? I'd love to see a historical pic.
I will see what I can find