#6

This phone was made in 1936, making it one of the later GPO 162’s to be manufactured and one of the few green 162s made from Diakon (most Green 162’s were made from UREA).  The switch from UREA to Diakon happened at about the same time as the GPO switched from 162s to 232s.

For some reason, there are more red 162’s in D material than green ones.

#10

“M” material is generally thought to have been used for spare parts only and this is the only complete coloured phone in M that I am aware of.

Also, the 1/162 base  is generally thought only to have been issued separately in order to update the older 162’s to include a drawer base.

My best guess is that this phone was made up in green “M” material as a prototype or for demontration purposes to show off “M” material, or the 1/162 drawer concept, or both.

Other collectors have informed me that green “M” bases have turned up in both regular 162 and 1/162 styles.  Also, an ivory “M” body has been discovered.

On both the 1/162 green bases that I know of, the drawer cover and knob have been in diakon material and I assume that this is how they came out of the factory – please let me know if you have seen other examples.  Please also drop me an email me if you come across anything else in “M” or other non standard materials.

#9A

This phone needs the correct caps and base to complete it.  If you come across these then please let me know and I will put you in touch with the phone’s owner.

The owner of the phone has identified this as green Bakelite rather than the standard 162 green urea.

#F1

This material has not aged well and the shrunken phone is now too small for the bell-set.  If anyone has the missing parts for this phone then please let me know and I will put you in contact with the owner.

This is unlikely to be the same material used in the original 1930 colour sample as it took the GPO until 1934 to stabilise their urea resin red 162 for production, and this 1933 example is likely a prototype of this.

#F2