(TELEPHONY) New Haven District Telephone Company Printing pl

Sale 2263 - Lot 265

Price Realized: $ 180

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300

(TELEPHONY.) New Haven District Telephone Company. Printing plate for the 1878 first list of subscribers. Etched metal plate, 6 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches, mounted on 3/4-inch wood block. Np, nd

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Additional Details

The world's first telephone directory was printed on one sheet by the New Haven District Telephone Company on 21 February 1878. This block was apparently reproduced by a photoengraving process from an original printing of the 1878 list. The printed rule between the columns must have been faint in the original; it is here rendered as an irregular series of dots. Stamped onto the unraised part of the plate are two impressions of the number 64, followed by a union bug for the International Photo Engravers Union. Local 64 of this union was established in South Bend, IN circa 1912, and was merged into another union in 1964.