Real Vintage or Copy?

[Mach One]

I noticed this telephone in a lift this week. It looks like a vertical 706 (I think that's the number?) but it has a horrible push button where the dial would be. Somehow, although convincing in overall shape, I suspect that it is a copy?

Considering there were push button 706s (both pulse and DTMF) it seems rather poor to have sourced this awful attempt at push buttons but if it is a copy then I get it.

[AC/HL]

It is a GPO phone, but the ersatz GPO, not the real thing.

http://www.samhallas.co.uk/collection/bits_741.htm

[paulsherwin]

I don't think it's really a copy of anything, just an example of rather tasteless retro styling.

[Dave Moll]

Yes, one of many 'phones these days with the GPO branding, having nothing to do with Post Office Telephones.

[Pellseinydd]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

I don't think it's really a copy of anything, just an example of rather tasteless retro styling.

They are produced for/by an outfit in Manchester called GPO Retro Limited who registered a trademark almost identical to the old General Post Office 'lozenge' logo of the late 1950/1960's. see https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tm.../4/EU008634693 for their logo and other details.

It was originally registered for use with Telephone and headsets and they later added Clocks and Radios, and then in 2012 add -Audio and video apparatus and instruments; audio-visual apparatus and instruments; radio and television receiving sets; tuners; sound amplifiers; sound recording apparatus; sound reproducing apparatus; record players; car audio apparatus and instruments; video disc players and video disc recorders; compact disc players and compact disc recorders; tape players and tape recorders; portable digital audio and video devices for personal use; loudspeakers and loudspeaker systems; telecommunications apparatus and instruments; parts and fittings for all the aforesaid goods. .

By attaching the 'tie-on' label it becomes a 'GPO' item and the likes of eBay say it is a 'GPO' item. So if you are looking for anything from the original GPO in its search, you get all their 'replica' phones plus all sorts of other items

The original GPO logo (with out the squared off lower corners' was later registered by the Royal Mail Group for Telephones - See https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tm.../UK00002550026

They didn't register anything telephone related - only a thousand different item and services which you can see on the above link by clicking on 'Items' then the various 'classes'.

You'd be surprised how many people advertise these so called 'GPO' phones as being originals. The firm also attach their GPO labels to replica American repro 'Bell 500 series' and when being sold are claimed to be replicas of a classic British design of the 1960's!

For instance see where it described a replica American 500 type as "This Telephone was the final version of the 746 and was released in this format when STD dialling became widespread throughout the UK. In circulation from the 1970's this telephone was the GPO's standard rental instrument until the privatisation of the telephone network when the new generation of push-button telephones were introduced.

This classic British design icon has been updated to work on modern phone systems in the UK & Ireland to bring you the latest technology in a classic shell. "

So much for 'trade descriptions!!

[Mach One]

741 - of course - 706 was the older plastic style, I think?

Well, it's worse than I thought. Dreadful - but we've had to get used to this kind of stuff being sold these days.

Thank you for the very full answers!

[AndiiT]

Originally Posted by Mach One

Considering there were push button 706s (both pulse and DTMF) it seems rather poor to have sourced this awful attempt at push buttons but if it is a copy then I get it.

Hi, the phone in the picture is definetely one of those modern "retro styled" things. The GPO brand is also used on some of those "briefcase" record players that are similar to the Crossley Cruisers which seem to be gaining popularity amongst some circles.

If a push button 700 series wall phone was required they would be modified with a hook switch bracket as shown here

Regards

Andrew

[julie_m]

GPO phones were incredibly modular. The Push Button Units (there were various models) were designed to fit into a standard dial aperture, with an adaptor plate on the outside of the phone; so you could probably have modified a 741-type wall phone with a PBU. That would certainly have been neater than the later system of mounting a standard table phone upside-down, reversing the dial / PBU and adding an extra metal bracket for the handset to sit against the gravity switch buttons.

[Pellseinydd]

That was never done for 'wall version' of push button telephones. They were always the table model turned upside down with PBU reversed and extra bracket for handset. The reason being that the plate which covered the PBU wouldn't fit onto a 711/741 as it wasn't round. In the same way the 'Dummy Dial No 6' originally used on CB 706 telephones was too small for the Tele 711 and hence they introduced the larger 'Dial, Dummy No 7' which would fit either.

[julie_m]

Or it would have needed a different adaptor plate to suit the contours of the 741; and I suppose a new set of mould tools would have been considerably more expensive than a simple set of dies for a metal press to stamp out a simple bracket.

I still think it looked like an ugly bodge, though. Mind, when the Post Office was still nationalised, it was our money they were saving; so I don't suppose I should grumble, really.