Today, though, vintage candlesticks aren't cheap. "The candlestick phones are usually more expensive because of supply and demand," Nick says. "I collect them because the big, wood ones are too heavy to carry."
He's only half joking. Collectors are attracted to candlesticks in part because they're small; collectors commonly have hundreds, if not thousands, of phones. "When I started collecting, it was wood phones up to 1900. But then I ran out of room in my house," Nick explains. "I had filled two full rooms with wood phones and couldn't go any further. Now I collect the candlesticks."
Nickel-plated and potbelly candlesticks, which have a fat midsection shaft, are considered the most rare of this model, and those made by Strowger are rarest. The Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange of Chicago, made many different models, but the firm's rotary candlesticks fetch top dollar today, selling from $3,000 to $10,000, according to condition and rarity.
His love of the phone began when he got his own phone line in his room at age 13. "Some people are artistically inclined, some musically," John says. "You could say that I'm telephonically afflicted."FC
Long-distance memories
A Wonderphone, a potbelly, an aqua and a "mother-in-law" are all types of phones that can be found at The Museum of Independent Telephony, 412 S. Campbell, Abilene, Kan.
The museum, which shares space with the Dickinson County Historical Society and Museum, houses a dozen interactive exhibits as well as an extensive photographic and artifact showcase, all dedicated to telling 140 years of telephone history. The story is a tribute to the nearly 6,000 non-Bell phone companies, known as "Independents," that sprang up all over the nation after Alexander Graham Bell's patents expired in 1884.
The museum also houses offices of the Antique Telephone Collectors Association (ATCA), which has 1,300 members, making it the largest organization of its kind. In 1971, the group held its first members-only convention, and today, annual spring and fall gatherings attract participants from as far as Canada, Europe and Australia.
This year's spring show, always held in Abilene, attracted 150 members, each toting large phone collections and ready to buy, sell or trade.
The fall national show, held at various locations in the eastern United States, will be Aug. 9 and 10 this year in Atlanta.