Bakelite Telephones

There are many people who enjoy looking to the past for inspiration as they decorate their homes and offices today.  Often, casting our gaze back even just a little while through time can help us to find some wonderful designs and styles that were lost all too soon to the technology that many times seems ready to swamp us in our own progress.

Bakelite Telephones

Bakelite Telephones

---

Bakelite Telephones

Bakelite Telephones

VinTAGe telephones are a prime example of this.  There was a short while in our history when telephones were actually designed with a sense of style.  Unlike today when the goal seems to be figuring out how small and breakable to phone can possibly be, telephones of the past were sturdy, heavy duty pieces of equipMent that still looked handsome.  As they sat on a small corner table, they looked likethey were put there on purpose to enhance the look of the room.

Phone designers seemed to celebrate the possibilities of bakelite as they used to mold the plastic phones using a rainbow of colors.  This plastic had been around since 1907 and was used with increasing regularity as the need to conserve materials came to the forefront during World War II.  Today, these phones made from bakelite are much sought after collectibles which often bring hundreds of Dollars at auction.  Although bakelite was not the perfect plastic, many wonderful examples of these phones survive today and people love to use them as part of their home's decor even though they have cordless phones and cell phones as options.

Bakelite Telephones