The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I seem to live in an area in which all manner of curiosities turn up, not just talking machines. Fortunately I'm (1) in a downsize mode and (2) funds are limited. The photos are of a Regina music box that was sold at a local auction about 50 miles from me. Although I would like to own something like this (I need a barn to house everything), I have neither the space nor the money. I do not know what it sold for.

If I have read my Bowers Encyclopaedia of Automatic Musical Instruments correctly, this looks like a Regina Style 34 Orchestral Corona which is missing it's decorative top pediment.
Regina described this model as the largest and best instrument of it's kind ever made. I wonder what it sold for.

I wrote that it sold at a local auction. That does not mean it necessarily sold for very little money. It might. I was at auction four years ago in a town 30 miles from home. I got my second external horn machine there, a Standard Model A with a blue horn. In truth, it did look a mess, but it cleaned up nicely. For a hammer price of $75, I have no complaints. But I have also been to backwood auctions and have seen things sell for considerable sums, for example, a Victor E, for more than a grand. It was sold to a phone bidder. So perhaps in the age of the Internet nothing is local anymore.

epigramophone wrote:If I have read my Bowers Encyclopaedia of Automatic Musical Instruments correctly, this looks like a Regina Style 34 Orchestral Corona which is missing it's decorative top pediment.
Regina described this model as the largest and best instrument of it's kind ever made. I wonder what it sold for.

The Bowers book mentions that these changers sold with and without the top pediment. I suppose the only way to know with this one would be two tell-tale holes in the top front corners where the wood screws would go.

Bob

It went for a little under $11,000, after buyer's premium and tax, and has a small governor problem. Came with 15 disks. You can visit it anytime

G.C.Aschbach was a leading music dealer in Allentown. The building occupied by the firm, at 539 Hamilton Street, is extant (see Google maps). The store advertised in the Pennsylvania "Deitsch" (Dutch, i.e., German) dialect. See https://books.google.com/books?id=EnISA ... PA&f=false

Scroll through to page 361 for the ad. If you know Hochdeutsch and squint at the text, you can make some sense of it.

It has a few peg holes in the top so I'm guessing this one had the pediment at one time.