Posted 14 years ago
ttomtucker
(314 items)
Right after the turn of the century the blue bell paperweights made their debut within the Bell System appearing on employee's desk. It is believed Fenton Glass Co. manufactured these paperweight starting around 1910 until 1930. The individual companies within the bell system ordered these paperweights with their names in white stencling on the front and Local & Long Distance Telephone on the back side. However there several exceptions to this, two of them being Mountain States Telephone and Western Electric Company. The blue paperweights were manufactured in ice blue, peacock blue, and colbalt blue. The metal paperweight in the center is a very old Post and Co long pole receiver. I added some of my intercoms i have collected.
I've got about 2 dozen of these now myself you can see a few of them at http://www.myoldphones.com/ under Bells. I think I may have discovered a brand new blue bell not listed in jackies book. She is checking on it now but it's an inkwell with script writing and the text says "Equipment for Every Electrical Need" on the back. If you know anything about it want photos please let me know. Thanks!
Mike, I posted the Western Electric Blue Bell paperweight is this the one.
LOL, now we know there are 2 of these. That makes me feel MUCH better. Wasn't sure what I had here. I'll tell Jackie about this too. She is still researching it. What else can you tell me about this? You can reach me through my website or at mbrown at comcast.net.
I am just beginning to research the blue bell paperweight I own. It appears typical to the ones shown. White stenciling is : WESTERN ELETRIC COMPANY on front; reverse is TELEPHONE &TELEGRAPH APPARATUS and SUPPLIES. It is cobalt blue. I assume, because Western Electric was a pretty big company, there are probably a lot of these. I think it is lovely.
The Western Electric paperweight is one of the harder ones to find. The more common are the New York Telephone Co, Missouri & Kansas Telephone Co, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Western Electric Co was the manufacturing arm of the Bell system and not many of there paperweights show up.
WOW!!!!! thanks ttom.
Beautiful collection, thanks for sharing, and information
WOW! Great collection!
Thank you kephones
Huh. I think I just bought one of these today. Same shape. But no lettering, no maker marks, nothing. Just the shape of a bell. Is it a blank?
No Bell Telephone System had unmarked Bell paperweights, these paperweights were made by Fenton Art Glass Co. They were products between 1910 -1930
Okay after researching this information further, my understanding is that the original Blue Bells were distributed as blanks, then later the individual Bells had them printed with their names as a sort of advertising.
Great display you have put together in photo #1!
scott
I picked one up and it says "Save Steps Telephone" , "Save Time Telephone" Sounds like they had to convince people to use the phone!