Cylinder Cabinet?

[hickerso]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a home and contents, and among the items included were a working Amberola BVI, 40 odd cylinders and a cabinet. The cabinet looked like it was made for the purpose of holding cylinders and even matched the wood on the Edison player, but I wanted to confirm that this is a purpose built cylinder cabinet before I have to let it go. (I love audio and history, and I would truly like to keep this in the family, but sadly the house needs even more repairs than I can afford)

Can anyone provide me with more information about this? Note what appears to be a needle/reproducer storage space on the inside of the door (far left), what appear to be cylinder shelves (without spindles), and the pull-out shelf on the right. If anyone is interested, I can provide photos of the Amberola, too, but I didn't want this to get construed as a for sale thread. I'll likely sell the cabinet, player and the cylinders as a group soon, but for the time being I just want to know what I have and have some idea as to its value. I've not found another photo of a cabinet that had a needle storage cubby built-in, so I'm not sure that's what it is.

Thanks in advance.

Jim Hickerson

[52089]

Personally I think this was a disc cabinet with the disc storage removed. Those are definitely needle holders on the door. (The middle one with the small hole is for used needles.) The drawer would have been for papers or accessories. I'll be interested to hear other opinions.

I also want to point out that your BVI must only be used for playing celluloid 4-minute records. Playing any "wax" record on this will instantly destroy the record.

[Phonolair]

Looks like a Herzog disk record cabinet, #806 I believe.
In this case someone has added the shelves to hold some cylinders.
Herzog did make a cabinet that looked the same on the outside for cylinders. But the inside would have had drawers.

Larry Crandell

[phonogfp]

Yes, the cylinder version of this cabinet was Herzog's No.714.

George P.

[hickerso]

Thank you very much for the information. After looking it over, I'd have to presume that the shelves were included in the original build of this, as there are slots cut into the sides that'd have been difficult to add without complete disassembly. The door cabinet hinge appears to have failed and was reattached a little above its original spot, and there is a piece of wood that would require a little glue/clamp, near the slide-out drawer. Other than that and the normal wear and tear, its really quite a beautiful piece. Its so nice to see the craftsmanship quality that was the standard in those days!

I've looked for a Herzog catalog and searched the models mentioned, and see a lot of similar cabinets, but none just like this so far. If anyone has cleaning suggestions, please let me know. There's smoke residue and dust in every possible crack, and while I don't want to restore it, I would like to clean it up some.

Many thanks to those kind enough to share their knowledge with another newbie!
Jim