This FH 34 phone has the added bonus of a GPO mottled brown bakelite dial and there are only one or two of these around.  Neither of these two phones is currently in the UK.

Even without the bell-set, the mottled brown GPO 162 is an impossible to find phone.  I am guessing that 10 or less of these exist in good condition, but I am interested to hear what others think.

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#7

Perfect phone, but parts from different manufacturers and therefore colour doesn’t match perfectly.  I am told that some phones were issued by the GPO with a mixture of FH and PL parts.

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#8

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.

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