More from my collection: Photo

[beaumonde]

It don't get much easier than that
If only all forums were this easy. I certainly won't be bothing with imageshack to post here from now on.
Great Columbia BTW!

Thanks, Shane. Here's another view:

[Valecnik]

Now that is really a nice picture. I've always wanted to have the BII with exactly that horn but never been lucky and had the $$$ at the same time. Congrats on that one. That's a prize!

[Edisonfan]

Okay, I added a larger photo, useing what you suggested shane. I have also added a descrpition, as well.

Paul

[richardh]

Great pictures Paul and Adam. Those machines are really nice.

BTW Paul I see that you have been lucky enough to get some DDs with their original covers. I've never seen these in the UK...are they a rare survival in the US? Here in the UK all the DDs ive ever seen are in poor condition - perhaps its the damp climate here? All the ones in my collection have come direct from the US (via Ebay!)

RJ

[Edisonfan]

Rich: The four that have, the orignal sleeves, are rare at least in my area, and surrounding states. Most of the disc's that I get are in decnet shape, and playable. I have a few that are a bit rough, a chip here, or the disc has some scratches on it. I don't think the paper used, for the DD's was of good quality. As most of those sleeves, that I have are falling apart. That's why they are in a plastic sleeve, and stay in my display case.

Paul

[Edisonfan]

Acid in the paper. That would explain, why the sleeves are falling apart, and why you don't find too many of them.

Paul

[Neophone]

Folks,

Also bear in mind that for the most part the Edison record storage system was harder on the sleeves-in fact you were supposed to cut off the bottom corners.

These paper items including catalogues and supplements were for the most part considered temporary so there wasn't any reason to spend good money on quality paper.

Regards,
John

[EdisonSquirrel]

I find the quality of paper Edisonia to be inconsistent. Many Edison catalogs are printed on inferior quality paper, such as the 1924 DD catalog and the 20s monthlies, while the April 1914 BA catalog is printed on quality paper.

Victor, on the other hand, almost consistently used quality paper for their catalogs. A Victor yearly catalog that was well cared for will show very little sign of aging.

Rocky

[Valecnik]

The Edison DD sleeves did have the acid problem as did most of the time however the paper is much heavier, like the thickness of a paper grocery bag, in most cases, probably to compensate for the much heavier weight of an individual disc record.

As John points out, at least on the earlier ones, into the late teens you were supposed to cut off the bottom corners. Cutting off the corners meant the disc in the sleeve could drop right into the drawer style cabinet of an A, B, or C250, W 250 etcetera series DD machine. If you've tried to store DD records in orignal sleeves with corners cut in a DD machine you see that the frictiion of the sleeves sliding against eachother quickly causes alot of wear and invites tearing, especially along the seams as they start to come loose and catch on eachother.

Another reason the sleeves tend to be hard to find is that with the introduction of the "19" series of phonograph, C19, W19, and others, the phonograph contained a record cabinet with individual slots for each record. The only way to get the record into the cabinet was WITHOUT the sleeve. I'm sure most people just bought records and threw the sleeves away. Also by this time they had gone to the generic "Edison Record" sleeve with no specific information about the particular record on the sleeve so there was no need to keep the sleeve to retain information about the artist or the history of the piece, (see below for more info re types of sleeves).

The earliest types of sleeves I've seen were solid sleeves. (No hole for viewing title of the record). The title's for each side were glued onto the upper quarter of the sleeve on a piece of paper about abotu 2 inches wide and 9 inches long, one title on the right and one on the left half of this paper. Under each title was quite a narrative, a paragraph or so, on the artist and about the song itself, who wrote it, it's history etcetera. These were generally dark grey or dark blue, steel blue. The title paper was heavy brown with black and sometimes red print.

A bit later they came with same design but with center cut out so you could also read the title info on the record.

by the early 20s all this was dropped and all sleeves were generic,hole in center, light brown containing first the "Edison Re-Creation" title at the top then the "Edison Records" oval logo on the front alongside an attractive woman next to a Chippendale upright C19. Since there was no specific info related to the title and because the phonographs of the day had record cabinets which accomodated records without the sleeve.... throw it away!

So in summary I'd say the relative lack of availability of these sleeves today is due to a variety of reasons,
- relatively heavy record is hard on paper
- acid in paper
- encouraging people to cut the corners
- later Edison phonos designed to store records without sleeves

I've often wondered about the pros and cons of storing records in sleeves in plastic. For me the jury is out but I'm betting it's the right way to go. The reason is in the past I've bought alot of NOS DDs that were stored together in original sleeves for many years. The sleeves look like new within the circular outline of the record where the records are pressed tightly against eachother. Where the sleeves exhibit wear and deterioration is outside the perimiter of the record where they have often deteriorated to a notably more sigificant extent.

So... as you might have guessed, while not common you can find these in original sleeves. I've not counted mine but surely in the hundreds. I've put all my original sleeve DDs into plastic liners for safe keeping.

Hope you guys find this rambling at least somewhat interesting.

[MordEth]

I've often wondered about the pros and cons of storing records in sleeves in plastic. For me the jury is out but I'm betting it's the right way to go. The reason is in the past I've bought a lot of NOS DDs that were stored together in original sleeves for many years. The sleeves look like new within the circular outline of the record where the records are pressed tightly against each other. Where the sleeves exhibit wear and deterioration is outside the perimeter of the record where they have often deteriorated to a notably more significant extent.

I’ve always thought that if there was any moisture in the air where you are, there was always the possibility of having it condense inside the plastic, but I suppose it would depend on the humidity where you are.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to this?

— MordEth