The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Handsome, but with the refinish and repro parts, worth not much more than half that IMHO.

Clay

The photos of the machine really don't show the decal very well. Here is a blow-up. I agree it's a repro, but on closer inspection it looks to be pretty decent. While I probably wouldn't spend that much for a Standard D myself, if I ever do sell one, I hope I run into some of the same bidders!

I sold this machine for $400 to a friend of Sonnyphono right before Christmas. I am the restorer. I made the case decal and it was taken directly from a digital photo of an Edison decal so it is exact. Not a bad profit on the resale!
Dave Jolley

I have another one fitted with a Don Gfell oak horn I'm going to be selling soon.

I was surprised at the price for this too. I went to take a look at it with a friend of mine who is just getting into collecting and asked me to go with him to see what I thought. I was very impressed with David's work. He refinished the cabinet using orange shellac flakes and hand rubbed/sanded the layer. We talked quite a bit about the decal and how he made/applied it because I was really impressed with how accurate it was. He did a great job cleaning/polishing the nickel and bedplate, which was original. The motor was completely cleaned and adjusted and he had the reproducer rebuilt by Steve Medved. The reproducer and horn were reproductions. After taking a look, my friend asked what I thought and I told him it is a fantastic machine if he wanted something reliable with good sound and displays well. He was a bit hesitant because of the refinished cabinet and reproduction parts, but decided to buy it.

A few weeks later my friend asked me if I would sell it on eBay for him as he decided he wanted to find something all original. I listed it for him and told him that it would probably bring around half of what it ended up going for. With a few hours left it was around $500 which I thought it would be the final price. But like Brian mentioned, there were multiple bidders from China. Like I said, I was pretty surprised to see it go for what it did. But it's on the way to the Music College of Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.

I too have noticed the international demand for phonographs and related items lately. Maybe the prices they pay are higher due to a limited amount of sellers who will ship internationally.

That machine serves as a model for my "D" restoration project.
Its gorgeous.Does anyone know what paint was applied to obtain
that beautiful finish?I see the reference to orange shellac.
Did you Discman apply this over the decals after applying them?
How many coats of shellac?
Is it true that the original paint on Edison "D" s were shellac?
That means the original paint could be stripped with methanol?

Well update this reply.I tested with methanol on my case and the
shellac comes right off.That is the answer to that question.

There are about 8 coats of orange shellac on the case, the first two coats applied by brush. It was wet sanded between coats. The decal was applied after the second coat and the shellac was sprayed after that. After the final coat of shellac was dry, the whole thing was hand polished using a felt pad and rottenstone with water. It is a finer finish than would have originally been applied at the factory but I like the results. The bedplate finish was all original, I just cleaned it and polished it with Meguiar's "Mirror Glaze" car polish.
I have more pictures of the machine here:
http://www.pbase.com/hockingphotos/edison__standard

Dave Jolley

That's a thing of beauty.
I'm surprised at the dark tone in the oak by using just shellac. I'd have thought a stain
would need to be applied first to achieve that, especially the black grain lines.

Was this stripped and sanded right down to the raw wood before the shellac was applied?

The finish on the case was in horrible shape, most of the finish was gone and the decal was like a ghost. I stripped it to bare wood, and applied a coat of Minwax oil stain called "early american". I use several differnt colors of minwax stain depending on how dark or light the wood is after it is stripped. As I recall, this case was rather dark. The orange shellac flakes I use are pretty dark, especially when you apply several coats so I take that into consideration when I choose a stain color for a project.
Dave

Thanks for the info Dave. I'm going to attempt my first restoration of an Edison Cylinder phonograph in the coming weeks and was thinking of using the early american from minwax as well. I'd like to chalk that up to great minds thinking a like but we'll see what mine looks like when it's done.

Thank you Dave for that detail on the finishing.
Very helpful.The pictures on Ebay add seem lighter color more
blond color? Is that Ebay add your machine?