Contempra - Beige - Rotary

History

Here is a great piece of working vintage decor. Inspired by Eames era styling, the Northern Electric Contempra was first introduced in 1968 in a rotary dial version. The touch tone Contempra was released a few years later. Although the Contempra was available in a variety of colors, this model that we are selling here is sure to be the conversation starter in your house for years to come. The Contempra was uniquely designed so that it could be used as either a wall mounted, or as a desk phone. This phone was manufactured at a time when the telephone company still owned all the telephone equipment that was attached to their lines. As a result, the Contempra is very solid and has the feel of a piece of workmanship that was clearly designed to last.

The Restoration Process

Dial – The dial has been fully disassembled, cleaned, lubed and timed to ensure years of trouble free service.

Cords – The phone has been outfitted with brand new vinyl cords and the line cord has a modular connection to facilitate a modern connection to your wall jack.

Shell – The plastic shell has been painstakingly put through a multi-step restoration process which includes sanding with 400, 800, 1000, 2000 grit. This ensures that there are no scratches, dents or dings. The shell is them carefully buffed on our two step buffing wheels. This takes out the fine abrasions left by sanding and leaves the plastic with a smooth factory fresh finish. Finally we apply a three step plastic restoration compound. This leaves the plastic with a beautiful high gloss finish.

Handset – The handset has been ultrasonically cleaned to get all embedded debris. It is then sanded with the same process as the shell and buffed back to its beautiful original shine.

Do you currently have any rotary phones? If the answer is no, it is always a good idea to call your local phone company and check if they still support “pulse” dialing. If they do, you are all set to go. If they do not, your phone will not be able to place calls without a converter.   We have an external pulse to tone converter that is available for an additional $59.95.

As an alternative, we provide an option to use this phone as an extension of your cell phone. The XLink Bluetooth gateway will allow you to make and receive calls using a vintage rotary dial through a Bluetooth connection to your cell phone.