Telephones for everyone!

Telephones looked completely different when they first came out than they do today.  There were no cordless phones, and cell phones were nowhere close to being an idea when phones first started.

Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone March 1876.  Shortly thereafter in the same year, Hungarian engineer Tivadar Puskás invented the telephone switchboard.

With the long amount of time that the telephone has been used, the amount of collectibles on the market is quite large.

You could collect signs:

And you can even collect the phone themselves.  There is the old wall phone with the wood case:

*picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

The candlestick phone (which looks like it could actually be used to hold a candle):

*photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com

The rotary phone:

*photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Even the push button models like what we have today. 

*photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com

You can not only use them to decorate with, some of the items can still be used today.  If you are going to use one, you need to make sure that it is good shape (especially to the wiring in the phone).

You can see the signs on eBay here.  What kind of finds have you run across?