Posted 15 years ago
sschack
(5 items)
Paperweight from the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company based in Danvers, Belgium.
I'm doing this off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt:
The Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company, Antwerp was created to manufacture switching equipment for the European market. But World War 1 interrupted these plans after just a few systems were made and installed. Over a ten year period in the early 1910's the US Department of Justice and Bell System were engaged in anti-trust actions concerning the size and scope of AT&T. In exchange for government recognition of the telephone system being a "natural monopoly", the Bell System agreed to shed its *direct* ownership in some properties in order to trim the size of its monopoly. Western Electric, Bell Canada and overseas manufacturing were included in the agreement. To that end Bell Telephone Manufacturing in Anvers, Belgium, and Bell Cuba and others were sold to International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) around 1925. So, we know this paperweight was made before that date. Most of these Bell inscribed paperwieghts were made between 1910 and 1920. This is one of the scarcer Bell paperweights.
I'm prretty sure Fenton made some items like this. I've seen one as a lamp at our convention.
I have a bell very much like this that I know is over 60 years old. What is something like this worth?
Steve, A nice Bell paperweight to have in your collection. This is a very hard one to find in good condition.
It's made in Anvers = french name for Antwerp ( Antwerpen in flamish / dutch),
and yes its over 60 years old, in the old days french names were used in advertising and labels. It's a nice item never seen one like it. I hope this helps you with the research.
I have one like this you can see on http://www.myoldphones.com/. I've never even taken the time to clean it up but its in excellent condition with no cracks and good lettering. I've not seen another one come up for auction since I bought this one 5 years ago.
thats worth $40-50 bucks
I believe it was Boyd and not Fenton who made bells like that for the USA telephone companies. If it was made by Boyd it would date from after 1978.
I was wrong Fenton is believed to have made these bells between 1910 and 1930
Steve, i just picked up a bell paper weigh from Canada the has local & long distance
on both sides