I am selling this in behalf of a collector and he tells me this was bought along with two others. I have stripped it down and rebuilt it after cleaning and polishing each part. As you can see it is a wonderful example of a rare and sought after model. These telephones were designed to be connected to a large box of valve electronics at both ends of the line. One side would scramble the signal and the other would unscramble. This telephone has none of the electronics but has the 28 terminal switch block and not the std 12. The model of telephone is a GPO 394LB and this was the most commonly used to convert for this use. The base is marked SA 5063/1 which denotes it is a special apparatus model or scrambler set. These were used by high ranking officials to communicate safely without the call being overheard. They often had green handsets and some I have found were painted green. The outside labels are all very good reproductions and so is the drawer card.
These can be seen in the “cabinet war rooms” in London and Churchill had one during the war years. I have sold these in the past with green handsets for £900 and so with a black handset I have priced it at £495. This is a non working show item however if you want it to just receive calls and have a “bell on bell off” facility I can change the internals for a 328 model to allow conversion to work correctly. This would be another £40. What a statement telephone and I can a make dial label with the number Winston Churchill used.
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