Norwegian Royal 'Pulpit' Phone

One of two fancy walnut Ericsson 'Pulpit' phones presumably made for the royal castle in Oslo in the 1880s. The marquetry on the writing desk features the Swedish-Norwegian Union coat of arms, representing the personal union between the two kingdoms that existed until 1905. It features a walnut case, a rare early "helical" microphone, and a three-part inductor for the ringing mechanism. The cabinets for these royal phones were manufactured by cabinet-maker G. Malm and differ from the standard telephones primarily by the pulpit top featuring marquetry inlays of various kinds of wood, and complemented with thin strips in silver.