12 Comments Add your own

• 1. Harry  |  July 22nd, 2006 at 22:45

  Very nice site!

• 2. Liz  |  August 25th, 2006 at 01:48

  I love those phones. My aunt has an orange one.

• 3. jerry  |  January 2nd, 2007 at 21:04

  would like more info.i have an old rotary dial contempra that i use in my garage.some were made here in belleville ont.

• 4. Ken  |  January 19th, 2007 at 17:03

  I have a a bright red contempra phone from the early 1970′s. It has served me well and I would not trade it for anything. Who needs caller ID!!

• 5. rick  |  January 23rd, 2007 at 14:52

  We used to convert these telephones into mobile control heads and install them in Mercedes. Also saw a leather covered one. Great phones.

• 6. j little  |  October 4th, 2007 at 02:04

  I have one in red superb phone nice and chunky rotary dial is a great idea… I am looking for a reasonably priced ERIAFONE COBRA

• 7. JB  |  February 26th, 2008 at 13:58

  i have 3 two whites and a red one white is rotary and like the other friends here i would not trade or give that phone away for anything

• 8. Henry  |  October 5th, 2008 at 18:49

  I have an avocado contempra touch tone that has a dial tone but the tones do not work and need help because I can’t find anyone who can repair them – any suggestions??

• 9. Dan Brown  |  May 28th, 2009 at 13:23

  Just for the records my father Tom Brown who worked for NT in London Ont. as a pattern and plastics engineer designed the CONTEMPRA phone in the summer kitchen of our home in london and the original had touch tone features but was deemed by NT to be too radical of a change /SPEAKING of CHANGE he never received a nickle for his efforts and quit NT a year or so before NT introduced it.

• 10. Adam  |  August 12th, 2009 at 13:32

  The design for the CONTEMPRA was done by John F. Tyson in Ottawa while the “repackaging of internal components” was done in London, Ontario. Your father most likely designed the guts of the phone in the summer kitchen of your home.

  http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=173&dat=19681121&id=fcAMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z18DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2046,5074023

• 11. David  |  April 10th, 2010 at 20:39

  Quite contrary to popular belief, this was NOT the first phone with the dial in the handset as Western Electric was producing the Trimline since 1965. But one thing unique about this phone was the color palette – there were 9 in all, 6 brand new for telephones. I have a rotary dial model in the mauve color. It was made in Canada and has Northern Electric markings (not Northern Telecom). I don’t know the exact date of manufacture but the phone had to be manufactured prior to 1976 when NE began to use the NT moniker corporate wide (Northern Telecom Inc was incorporated in 1971 in Boston but other subsidiaries still used Northern Electric in corporate names). Another thing about this set is that there are no modular cords and the line cord is in the same color as the rest of the set. A favorite in my collection

• 12. Dan Brown  |  March 9th, 2012 at 07:17

  David is correct, trim line did have the dial in the handset.The CONTEMPRA was designed with the first touch buttons in the handset. The trim line lacked style, it was said to look like, a turtle finding refuge on a log. Being a machinist and inventor myself I think I know the difference between the “guts of the phone” and the plastic shell. As companies often do, play one design off another to avoid paying royalties or pay twice to a designer contract they already hold for an easy out, is most likely what took place.

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