A US telephone? Nope! Autelco was an Italians subsidiary of the US Automatic Electric. They made a copy of the AE 40 Monophone. The inside was different though. The various components are different, with bigger bells, with the open side turned downward and a typical European ringer mechanism. Also this version does not have a rubber ring along the lower edge of the housing, but common rubber feet.
Other American features were retained, like the design of the dial, metal hooks at the ends of the cords, serving as strain reliefs and some components inside the housing, like the hookswitch and earthing button.
It is unclear what the model number of this telephone is. It is not printed anywhere on the telephone itself and asking other collectors yielded little information, other than an old advert with a similar telephone and model MT 802 printed on it. This however was a version without an earthing button and changes are that the version with an earthing button would have had a different model number.
Older version
Like the AE 40 is a development of the AE24, this model also has an earlier version of which the model number is known: a141. The most important outward difference is the 2 rows of oval sounding holes on the sides, like the original IS Monophones.
Just passing through
I have always been curious about this telephone and had the opportunity to study and photograph one, when a friend from Australia asked me to buy one and ship it to him. The Italian seller did not want to ship outside Europe.
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