In recent years many reproductions of candlestick and other telephone styles were made in Asia for sale in the developed countries. Many of these are fakes that are marked with GEC, Siemens, Ericsson, Western Electric, and other markings, patent dates, etc. Most of these were brassed out --meaning that they were bright, shiny brass without being painted. They are easy to mistake for the real thing, and this web page is designed for the buyer, who isn't sure whether they have just found a 1919 dial candlestick or a 1991 newbie.

Some examples - these pictures are all past eBay items

Bell receivers

        < Genuine                                                      Poor Copy >

Notice in most of the pictures shown with a bell receiver, the shape is all wrong. I have never seen any genuine bell receiver manufactured with the lines that most of these repros have.  

Genuine bell receivers have a thicker stem and also they never have the bottom shaped like these poorly copied attempts

It has also become popular with some "Telephone Restorers" to remove some of the original telephone components and replace them with the modern equivalent. In this way they have created a telephone that looks old, but has new facilities (such as tone dialling etc). Again, most of these are brassed out --meaning that they are bright, shiny brass without being painted. Bad idea; this type of modification destroys any antique or collectible value the telephone originally had - better to buy a brand new modern decorator telephone.

Some examples

Shame Really

What Were They Thinking

Not Good

Looks Okay, but

It's what you can't see that is the problem. When you see a dial on a phone that was clearly made before the era of dial phones it is a sure sign that the internals have been modified. The problem with these modifications to make it work on the modern network, is that they result in some important and original parts being replaced. Usually it is very difficult to restore to original.