Butlers or servants call box annunciator , Boston | ||
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Posted 4 years ago
raleav
(5 items)
From a home on Beacon Street in Boston, 1890's? Butlers Bell, or servants call box.
This was salvaged by a former Boston building inspector in the 1970s. I bought his entire collection. :)
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raleav, Fascinating.
Whoever had this particular call box in their home must have been fairly well to do (they had both a drawing room, and a library).
I wonder what "OWN CHAMBER" was. The head of the household staff's room?
Compare with this more humble call box by the same maker:
*snip*
A neat Antique (circa late 1800s, early 1900) Victorian, Edwardian Oak Servants Bell, Call Box. The box has numbers and arrows and would have been placed in a kitchen or butlers pantry to call a servant to a room, there are 4 arrows with numbers 1-4. The box was made by "John R. Bowker, Boston, MA". It measures 12 1/2" high x 8" wide x 4" deep excluding the reset button on the bottom.
*snip*
https://www.rubylane.com/item/370063-009290/Antique-Victorian-Edwardian-Oak-Servants-Bell
Life without servants in the Victorian and Edwardian eras was tough, at least for modern people, as the participants in "The 1900 House" came to realize:
*snip*
An 1890s-built two-storey terraced house with a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a scullery, a bathroom, three bedrooms (there were actually four, but one was used as a safety room with a telephone) and an outside loo.
*snip*
Because looking after the house became difficult, the Bowlers decided to hire a maid-of-all-work. Elizabeth Lillington was chosen, however after a few weeks the family sacked her as Joyce decided that she could not reconcile her views on women's emancipation with employing a woman as a domestic. However, being 'liberated' was not the view Elizabeth herself took of her dismissal. It was pointed out that a woman in Elizabeth's position in 1900 would have faced desperate poverty had she been denied housekeeping work.
*snip*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House
Keramikos,
I assume 'Own' chamber refers to the owners chamber.. John Bowker was just the electrician who installed this unit. I found his name in an early 1900's directory listed as such. I've also seen another unit with his name on it. From others that I've seen, it's usually the installer's name on the unit. I wonder who actually made them?
Your link to the more humble call box didn't come through
John R Bowker was a electrical contractor in Boston. The company wired and installed intercommunicating telephones for hotels, university, private homes. the
annunciator was manufactured Electrical Goods Mfg. Co. of Boston
ttomtucker, Thanks for those additional tidbits of information. :-)
raleav, Hmmm.
I'm able to open that link on my Windows machine in Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. I'm also able to open it on my android smart phone
Do you mean that you couldn't open the link at all, or that you didn't see the call box?
The call box was sold, so you have to scroll almost all the way to the bottom of the page to see the original listing. I'm sorry if that was the problem in your not seeing it.
Here's a link to one of the six pictures in the listing:
https://cdn0.rubylane.com/_pod/item/370063/009290/Antique-Victorian-Edwardian-Oak-Servants-Bell-full-1A-700x2%3a10.10-826-9.webp
What a wonderful piece of history!!