Edison Albums

[tubaphone]

This is another first for me, I've never come across an Edison DD machine with original Edison albums in it. In all my years of collecting I can probably count how many times I've seen Edison record albums on one hand. Apparently this phonograph was made to accept these. Have any of you seen a machine like this with the albums in it?

[Springmotor70]

Yes that certainly is a fantastic find! - I usually think of these albums for the A-150 with the open shelf (even if most of the time they are missing!) - Awesome find!

[marcapra]

I have an Edison A-150 with five Edison portfolios like that sitting on the open shelf. They are called portfolios because unlike an album, they don't open like a book. They are boxes that open by flipping a lid on top. I also have a set of albums that I've never seen anyone else have. They are beige with gold embossed writing saying Edison Re-Creations which would date the albums at least to 1916-1922 when Edison used the word Re-Creation instead of record.

[Valecnik]

Very interesting. The portfolios you post appear to be from an Edison A-150 as others have noted. Your machine should have had 5 quite thicker regular type books most likely saying "Edison Re-Creations" on the front and the spine, each containing 10 records. Who knows why yours has these earlier type?

[gibsonj]

Any evidence in your C150 where the typical wire rack was mounted. Just thinking it might have been removed at some point, to accommodate the portfolios.

John

[edisonplayer]

My friend Arthur Pare told me that years ago he saw some Edison albums at the Salvation Army store in Binghamton,NY.I've never seen one.edisonplayer

[tubaphone]

I should have stated in my original post that the machine in the pictures does not belong to me. I saw it in a Craigslist ad and had never seen an Edison DD phonograph with Edison portfolios in it. Here is the ad for the phonograph; http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/atq/4926606384.html
I have no connection to this ad other than my curiosity about the record storage.

[Valecnik]

A picture of the A-150 with the correct record storage.

[tubaphone]

Beautiful machine Valecnik! Looks like it just came from the Edison dealers store. The portfolios look perfect too, what a combination.

[PeterF]

Well, I followed up on the lead, since it was somewhat local to me, and bought the machine yesterday. The album boxes fit perfectly in the wire rack, and had been lettered A - E. Later if I have the time to run through my Edison catalogs, I will look for the details of this model and of the album boxes, and any notes talking about their suitability for each other.

Puzzlingly, there's no ID plate on the machine (tack holes show where it was), so we can't figure out how late it might be from the serial number. However, it has the 10/12 button accessory and the late "oxidized" finish on the horn neck, albeit with a nickel reproducer. By "late oxidized" I mean that grayish finish with the golden streaked highlights, as seen on mid to late 20s stuff, not the black with copper highlights "oxidized bronze" of the early days. And finally, the owners manual is dated in the mid 20s as well. So my best guess is that the album boxes came to the machine on their own, later, unless the boxes continued in production for just this model. But more catalog research is needed, because it seems more than coincidental that the boxes fit the rack so utterly perfectly, in both width and depth. And why have the rack at all, otherwise?

There's no history on the machine, because they bought it from a dealer about 20 years ago.