Phonograph collecting

[MATTROSE94]

One possible exception might have been for different formats--I can see someone with the money, or a legacy machine, having both a cylinder player and a disk player, for instance. Or maybe separate disk players for vertical and lateral cut records, although adapters would be more likely there. That said, my experience of lateral adapters on Edison disc machines is that they are fussy in use at best, so someone who bought into the Edison system but wanted to play Victor, too, might well have owned a Victrola of some sort, maybe a modest table-top, as well.

Weighing against that, even the most modest machines were still hugely expensive in modern terms, so I'd think such "dual system" types would be only the most die-hard of phonophiles.

I heard stories of people back in the early 1900s who had both cylinder and disc phonographs due to the fact that some recordings were exclusive to both formats. It kind of would have been like someone in the late 1970s or early 1980s having both a Betamax VCR and a VHS VCR.

[Lucius1958]

The first 'collectors' probably started off in the '30s and '40s, picking up early or rare machines out of nostalgia and historical interest.

Back in the day, a family would have a phonograph for the parlor; if they could afford more, maybe a portable for picnics & outings, or a 'kiddie' machine for the nursery (saves the little tots from messing around with the 'good' phonograph). If they wanted to upgrade from an 'obsolete' machine (say a cylinder player, when discs became universal, or an outside horn, when everyone wanted a 'Victrola'), the old one would probably get stuffed in the attic, if they couldn't resell it.

- Bill