Vintage Western Electric Prototype A-1 Wall Telephone ! "The Holy Grail" of Western Electric Telephone Sets!! Start Price USD 9.95 Current Price USD 6,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 13 Buy It Now Price USD 6,000.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Sunday, July 06, 2008 End Time Sunday, July 06, 2008 Location Rochester Hills, MI See more about 'Vintage Western Electric Prototype A-1 Wall Telephone !' Description Up of bids out of my collection is an extremely rare Western Electric 1932  "Deco" wall Telephone. I believe this to be a Prototype model for the later Western Electric 300 series wall model. Western Electric marked there prototype test units where generally marked with a "D" number. This phone is marked D 95137 which designates it as such. This set has been named  "The Holy Grail" of  Western Electric desk/wall sets by my fellow collectors. I feel it is the wall version of the sought after Western Electric D 76869 A1 desk model. I my limited research I have determined that the wall versions are quite limited about 1 to 500 desk set versions!  This is one of three that I have known. There are many quite unusual characteristics inherent to this telephone. Most obvious is the material used to construct the front cover/housing is Bakelite!  I have been told that Western Electric never produced Bakelite housing on there in service domestically produced telephones. I have seen two other prototype Western Electric models a D1/202 and a 300 series desk set, both of which where later produced in cast white metal. The telephone is in exceptional condition with no chips, cracks or damage on it's Bakelite housing. It has NOT been detailed and polished as is often seen with many investment grade telephones that come across eBay - this is untouched. This particular telephone was featured in Kate E. Dooner's book "Telephones Antique to Modern " A Collectors Guide page 121. It is the actual telephone shown!  I was fortunate to purchase it from the former owner about six years ago. It has been one of most treasured telephones in my collection of over 800 sets. This is truly the crown jewel for any serious Western Electric Telephone Collector. Any questions- Please email me through eBay. Thank you, Bob Place a Bid!