An amazing cylinder haul

[kirtley2012]

Hi All, excuse me if I seem a little giddy, but I've just purchased a collection of cylinders like I've never seen before and I'm a bit excited.

I stumbled across a post on facebook while browsing from nearly a year ago from a lady who said she had a collection of cylinder records, no way to play them and was looking to sell them, the chances were slim, but I decided to message and see if she still had them, she did! I went over to look at them today as she lived just a 10 minute walk from me and was very pleased with what I saw!

The story goes that she knew a man who had recently passed away at 84 with no children and she was involved in liquidating the estate, from what I heard, the place sounded like a living museum.
The house was built in 1890 and the man's grandfather bought the house when it was only partly built and had been in the same family for 130 years until last year when the man passed, by how it sounded, the family had a bit of money and they were interested in the latest and the best, I was told of a beautiful piano that had succumbed to woodworm, fabulous furniture and other relics of a time gone by, which included these cylinders.

The family had obviously chosen cylinder as the favored format as there were signs of every cylinder age, including wax amberol, blue amberol, 2 minute wax...
Some of the 2 minutes have some mould, mainly some of the Pathé ones, but most of them should be very playable, there are a few interesting ones in there.

But the family had been in that house since 1890, so included in the lot were these...

7 Gorgeous 1890's brown wax cylinder's, including 3 by Russell Hunting, two of those as his character Michael Casey, 6 of the cylinders are wonderful, the couple I've played so far play loud and clear and wonderfully, one of the cylinders (3rd from the left) has unfortunately had much of its grooves worn away so the sound on it has been much erased, I shan't be shaving it though, theres still snippets of something there, which creates a bit of a mystery.

I NEVER find cylinders where I live, not even blue amberols, so this was an unheard of find for me and I feel very fortunate to have found them.

Here is a video of one of the Russell Hunting brown wax cylinders entitled "A Good Horse But Thin", it is very clear, it is possible to understand almost every word.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to go to the video on YouTube.)

[recordmaker]

Always very interesting to see the taste of one purchaser. also interesting they carried over to the Blue Amberol period.
I also see in the lids a record you should treasure of Hector Grant , which is of course Peter Dawson doing his best Harry Lauder impersonation.
that example you played shows how good Russel Hunting was at recording and as you say is nice and clear played on a set up representing the era it was played in.
I wonder if this was recorded in America or after he arrived in England as there is no company announcement on it.

[Curt A]

Congratulations on an excellent find...

Russell Hunting Discography (they don't seem to have the horse recording):
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... ressed%5D=

[Inigo]

Very nice! I don't find such things in Spain, wwhere our civil war 1936-39 caused big damage, destruction and expolio to the properties of the wealthy people (the ones that had such luxurious record playing machines) , and later since the late fifties', the economic boom lead to a mentality of throwing away the old things and wanting all them new.. . So the best era for lucky cheap finds in antique shops and flea markets was the 60s to the 80s, a time long ago passed through. Yet I remember the late seventies and early eighties seeing still lots of records and machines being sold by the lots, very cheaply. But I was then a teenager with small pocket money and couldn't afford but buying a small bunch of 78s from time to time... No machines until 1984, when I bought my first portable for 18€ then... Times....!

[kirtley2012]

Congratulations on an excellent find...

Russell Hunting Discography (they don't seem to have the horse recording):
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... ressed%5D=

Thanks, they don't seem to have the other two either ("casey departing to take his seat in the house of commons" and "Casey at the Dentist")

[kirtley2012]

Always very interesting to see the taste of one purchaser. also interesting they carried over to the Blue Amberol period.
I also see in the lids a record you should treasure of Hector Grant , which is of course Peter Dawson doing his best Harry Lauder impersonation.
that example you played shows how good Russel Hunting was at recording and as you say is nice and clear played on a set up representing the era it was played in.
I wonder if this was recorded in America or after he arrived in England as there is no company announcement on it.

Yes it's very interesting to adopt an entire original collection such as this, there are a couple of Hector Grant cylinders in there, I've not played them yet

He was very good, loud, clear vocals weren't easy in the 1890's, I'm not sure where it was recorded, they are all three Edison Bell cylinders, which would suggest England, but they also have Edisonia markings on them, and I believe Edisonia were importing many of Edisons machines and possibly also records, the brass plaque on the front of my suitcase home is an Edisonia one stating that it had been imported for use in the UK

[Roaring20s]

You have had some good luck.
Feels good to find treasure!

James.

[AZ*]

I enjoyed reading the post and seeing the pictures. You have every right to be giddy. This sort of thing doesn't happen that often. Thanks for sharing the story. Happy listening!

[EdiBrunsVic]

I also enjoyed reading about your adventure and newly acquired records.

[gramophoneshane]

I have a "catalogue of first series (brown wax) Edison Bell two minute cylinder phonograph records", 1896-1902, by Sydney Carter, and published by CLPGS in 1972, which lists "A Thin Horse" (4032) under speaches, recitations etc, and "Casey At The Dentist" (4092) under comic Irish dialogues, but there doesn't seem to be a House of Commons title listed anywhere.
There are quite a few gaps in this numerical list, so I don't know if these gaps indicate record numbers that were never released, or simply unknown titles at the time the catalogue was printed?
I don't know if this list is still available through CLPGS either.

Do you have the record number for the Casey departing to take his seat in the House of Commons cylinder?