Vintage ads for Ericofon one-piece rotary dial telephone, 1950s-1970s

In the 1950s, Swedish phone giant LM. The Ericsson-made Ericsson was the lightest phone on the market at the time of its introduction.

It revolutionized the look of this common household item by hiding the dial on the bottom of the base, making it look more like a modernist statue than a phone. To hang, you simply set it back on a table.

Because of its styling and its influence on future telephone design, the ericophone is considered by Phaidon to be one of the most important industrial designs of the 20th century.

It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In Sweden, the ericophone is known as the cobra telephone, because it resembles a coiled snake.

The phone was designed in the late 1940s by a design team including Gosta Thames, Ralph Lisel and Hugo Blomberg, and serial production began in 1954.

Early models were sold only to institutions, but production for the open market began in Europe and Australia in 1956.

Since the Bell system did not allow the operation of third party equipment on its network, the Ericophone could only be used by independent telephone companies in the United States. North Electric in Galleon, Ohio manufactured the Ericophone for the North American independent market.

The original phone was produced in two different designs. The oldest version is slightly longer, with the earpiece at a roughly 90-degree angle from the base.

The later version has a shorter handle, with the earpiece facing down slightly. The two versions are called the old case and the new case.

The old case was molded in two pieces, while the new case was molded as one piece. Both versions were initially produced in 18 colours. They used four-prong plugs in the United States at the time.

When it's in the U.S. When introduced to the market, the Ericsphone was available in 18 colours, but following the transfer of production to North Electric, the number of colors was reduced to eight. A small number of phones with clear and metallic finishes were produced for special promotions.

The most popular and widely produced colors were bright red and bright white. Other colors included various pastel shades of blue, green and pink. The phone was never made in black.