Edison Cylinder B.L. Series????

[Flvice]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, but I have browsed here many times. I ran across some Edison 2 minute gold moulded cylinders that I have never seen before. I cannot find anything on this series except an audio file from UCSB.

I'm hoping that someone here can share some information on them as well as thier scarcity or if they are common. Were they part of a foreign lauguage series sold in the states?

The three cylinder records have their title announcements in (2)Italian and (1) in German. Which is really cool. If you want to listen here is a file. I love this one

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/ ... l4535d.mp3

The cylinders are titled as follows:
(1) B.L.-4 La Donne E Mobile Rigoleto (constantino)
(2) B.L.-5 Aria Vi Ravviso O Ludghi Ameni La Sonnambula (Scotti)
(3) B.L.-9 O Kehr' Zuruck Tannhauser (Van Roody)

All of the cylinders have the titles in blue instead of the normal white.
They came in the regular Gold Moulded cylinder box and UCSB lists them Gold Moulded

Thanks in advance for any information.

Edward

DSC03999.JPG (146.45 KiB) Viewed 2045 times

[OrthoSean]

Hi,

These are all a part of the Edison "Grand Opera" Series. The boxes for these say "Grand Opera" and have blue instead of the red a typical 2 minute Edison box has. They certainly aren't as common as regular 2 minute Edisons are. I have a few of these myself and I treasure them, they sound great on my Triumph with the O reproducer and oak horn.

Nice find!
Sean

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply,

I thought that "Grand Opera" cylinder records were only Blue Amberols. in the blue box. I looked in a book which shows all of the Edison labels for the cylinders and they don't have a "Grand Opera" one. I guess I may have to start looking for the original boxes.

Does anyone have a pic of one. oh.. and just curious .. what does B.L. stand for?... anything in particular?

Thanks

[Valecnik]

Yes it appears that yours got put into incorrect regular boxes at some point but the records look pretty good. Nice find.

[Guest]

Thats strange... I replied this morning, and it hasn't posted.... Well thanks for the replies. I thought that the "Grand Opera" series were only blue amberols. I checked in my book containing almost all (Thought it was all) of Edison's record labels, and did not see that one

I haven't seen a Gold Moulded Grand Opera case, so if anyone has a picture and wants to share..... Also does anyone know what the B.L. in the number stands for? Just curious... and what was the price of one of those "grand Opera" records compared to a regular Gold Moulded.

Thanks in advance for the info

Edward

[Flvice]

I've had a very hard time posting... Thanks for all of the replies and information. I also did a bit of research, but more importantly, I contacted the guy who sold me the original 30 Gold Moulded Cylinders, and he agreed to sell me the remaining 50 Cylinders. I received them, and in the lot, I found the original boxes and lids for the Grand Opera cylinders.

In addition, I found four more Grand opera series cylinders with original boxes and two lids. Here are the titles:

B.L.-1 Hochstes Vertrauen, Lohengrin (German)
B.L.-2 Arie Martha (German)
B.L.-8 Duetto La Favorita (Italian)
B.L.-10 Chanson Du Toreador, Carmen (Italian) Great tune...

I was excited to reunite the original boxes with the records and most of the other records were in very good condition with most with their original boxes and numbered lids.

Now.. I never have seen these before, even on ebay, but I will be looking out for the series. Which begs the question... How many records were in the G.M. "Grand Opera" series?
I have numbers 1-10 but missing #3, #6 & #7. Also how much does one of these cylinders go for with the original box and lid?

I've included some pictures of the lot... I also noticed that these cost 75 cents in 1906 vs. 35 cents for the regular cylinders. Also one of the boxes (which is the only damaged one) is a little diffeent in that "Grand Opera" is written a little bigger on the box, but everything else including dates are the same.

I was also happy to get a Rounded edge cylinder # 99 "Zenda Waltz" in and original box and numbered lid with a original slip (first for me) Can anyone tell me the history of those rounded edge cylinders that have no writing on them?

Thanks,

Edward

[OrthoSean]

Prices depend on the title / condition / scarcity. Having the boxes and lids is a nice plus. Some of these sell into the $100-150 range, give or take. As an occasional eBay seller, I can tell you a record could go for $20 one week and $200 another. Seriously. It depends on a lot of factors. If you are interested in selling these, I'd suggest getting in touch with someone who has a large client base for such specialized cylinders such as these like Larry Holdridge. Contact me through a PM if you'd like Larry's contact info. He's the one who'll get you the best money for something like these. He publishes a large catalog once a year (every November, in fact, so if you wanted to sell these this year, you'd probably need to forward him the info quickly to see if he'd be able to help you out).

Sean

[Flvice]

Orthosean,

Thanks for the reply. I have no interest in selling them or anything in my very humble collection. In fact, I would like to aquire a few more and a large horn (Cygnet) since all my machines have small horns and I hear that the records sound much better from a larger horn.

I asked about the value, since if I ever run across any of the ones that I am missing in the Grand Opera series I have some idea what would be a fair price.

Also since I could not find any information on the web about G.M. Grand Operas (I only could find the BA series)I wanted to post it here with pictures for future reference.

[OrthoSean]

There's probably some info in one of the Dethelefson books on cylinders (none of which I own!)...

That being said, it was a premium series that certainly didn't seem to sell well. I know Larry's minimum bids for these range from $50-75 each, but I know they generally go higher than that at "hammer time", but it depends largely on titles and performers and naturally condition. I have four of these in great shape with boxes and lids and they sound wonderful on a machine with a large horn, in fact, on the Triumph with oak cygnet horn and the model O reproducer, they blow you away! I'm glad to hear you'll be keeping them, I know I certainly would, they're a nice highlight to any cylinder collection!

Enjoy them!

Sean

[Flvice]

Just a bit of information, for anyone who is interested, I answered one of my previous questions as to how many Grand Opera G.M. cylinders were in the series.

I discovered one of my fathers phonograph books Edison Cylinder Records 1889-1912 by Allen Koenigsberg in the attic along with an old salesmans case (Very excited about that). The book lists the Grand Opera "B" series starting in FEB 1906 with B1 and continues through he series to B68 in July 1908. There was also a series that started with # B101 - B113 that states they were issued in New South Wales (Australia??) in 1909.

Well I guess I have some searching to do if I want to try and collect this series. If anyone knows any for sale let me know... and thanks

Edward