Early form of plastic (8)
I believe the answer is:
bakelite
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">early form of plastic</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(I've seen this before)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for bakelite that I've seen before include "Type of hard plastic, in old telephones say" , "'Type of hard plastic, used in old telephones (8)'" , "Early form of plastic used for tableware, telephones etc" .)