Antique Telephones

Antique telephones are pieces of high aesthetic and historical value for collectors of antiques related to communications technology. Since the invention of the telephone in the late 19th century revolutionized communication between people, models have evolved at the speed of light. From the first designs, bulky and complicated to handle, to the current cell phones, the evolution of this invention has been truly spectacular.

Early telephones: the first models

The first known telephone is due to the ingenuity of an Italian inventor, Antonio Meucci. Although for decades the invention of the telephone was attributed to the American Alexander Graham Bell, it was eventually shown that Bell actually patented the invention before Meucci. To solve this mistake, in 2002 the US Congress passed Resolution 269, which returned the paternity of the device to Meucci (who gave it the curious name of telephone).

It was in 1854 when Antonio Meucci built the first known telephone with the intention of communicating the upper floor of his home, where his office was located, with the lower floor, where his wife used to be. Lacking sufficient financial resources, Meucci was unable to register the patent and it ended up being acquired by Alexander Graham Bell. Unfortunately, the Italian inventor passed away without being recognized as the real "father" of this device: an invention that revolutionized the way people communicate with each other, without which we could not understand the evolution of our society.

Types of old telephones

Old telephones can be classified into different types, depending mainly on their design. In reality, the technology that makes them work is basically the same; for this reason, when establishing a typology it is necessary to do so according to their aesthetic characteristics.

• • Antique candlestick telephones

    . Their name comes from the English "candlestick", which actually means "candlestick" and not "candelabra". The vertical and stylized design of these devices earned them this nickname. In Spain they are also known as "candlestick telephones" and even as "candilophones". This design is one of the oldest in history, and lived its golden years between 1890 and 1940.

• • Antique wall-mounted telephones

    . It is estimated that the first models appeared around 1900. The design was intended primarily for public telephones, which were installed in stores or taverns. Their mechanism was coin-operated. Today, among the antique telephones that we can find there are fantastic wall-mounted models, such as the one launched by the Ericsson company in 1912. With solid wood case and double bell, this is one of the most beautiful and sought after antique telephones, of which thousands of imitations have been made. .

• • Old desktop telephones

    . Desktop telephones came after wall-mounted models. To achieve less cumbersome designs, a few years had to pass during which the mechanism became more compact and reliable. The Standard 20 N model, marketed during the 1920s in Spain, is one of the most famous classic designs: there was a desktop and a wall-mounted version. But undoubtedly one of the best known of the old telephones is the famous Heraldo model. Manufactured by Citesa, it was launched in 1963; its popularity was so great that practically every house in Spain had a Heraldo over the next 20 years. These telephones also had their wall-mounted version.

• • Antique gondola phones

    . Like Heraldo phones, gondola phones are not really antique phones, but vintage models. Their origin dates back to theTrendline model (later known as Trimline), a design launched in North America in 1964. A few years later, a senior official of CTNE (later known as Telefónica) traveled to the USA and discovered these telephones. Fascinated by their design and functionality, he commissioned Citesa to mass produce them. Gondola telephones quickly spread throughout Europe, but their introduction into the market was the work of Spanish initiative. Their compact design, the fact that the dialing disc was integrated inside the handset and their attractive aesthetics, very much in line with the industrial design of the time, made them a sales success.

Today, antique telephones still have thousands of admirers who look for them in stores, markets and websites. In many cases their mechanisms can be adapted to the telephone lines of today's homes, becoming not only fantastic antiques, but one hundred percent functional devices. Their boom is a real tribute to one of the most revolutionary and important technological inventions of all time.