The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

bigshot wrote:I went through a period where I had boxes of stuff in storage. I don't want to ever do that again. I paid a lot of money to not be able to get to my stuff.

As someone who also once had a ton of stuff and has been slowly moving it all on, I can sympathize with this statement. If you can't use it or enjoy it in some manner, why have it?

Garret wrote:

bigshot wrote:I went through a period where I had boxes of stuff in storage. I don't want to ever do that again. I paid a lot of money to not be able to get to my stuff.

As someone who also once had a ton of stuff and has been slowly moving it all on, I can sympathize with this statement. If you can't use it or enjoy it in some manner, why have it?

I would count "display it" as being able to enjoy it. I enjoy going to museums, even though I am not allowed to play with the stuff there (believe me, I would). Being in storage would be the cut off for me, because then it would only mean to own it without being able to enjoy it. But every collector is different, to each his own.

Andreas

I have a sunroom off of my house, in which I conceived an office, a music room, and a parlor all in itself. I furnished it with the appropriate 20s "wealthy person" furniture, and brought in my VV-360 in from the living room. I might be going overboard on this... But I still feel that immersion is key.

Personally, I’m with the OP. I don’t necessarily want a ‘phono garage’ stacked floor-to-ceiling with cool antique talking machines. (Wait a minute - who am I kidding? I’d LOVE that…) But as much as I love my ancient machines, I love my wife even more. So we’ve reached a loose agreement, which is basically that I’ll try to keep them to one per room… or one per area, as we have a fairly open house plan. (I’ve yet to discover if that includes bathrooms, but I imagine I’ll find out soon.)

And I’m also with those who say they have to be able to play them. If it’s not set up somewhere (ideally with at least a few records stored nearby) and in a condition where I can play it whenever I want, then – for me at least – it sort of defeats the purpose. (I’m a musician & audio engineer as well as a furniture restorer, so I’m in it for the esthetics AND the music.)

I’m lucky in that antique phonographs fit well into our décor – most of our furnishings are period pieces which I’ve restored, so at least I don’t have the Victorian-meets-Modern issue.

So, as per the pics below, I have an Edison Home B in the sitting room, with a dozen or so cylinders (and the lid) stored beneath on the shelves of the demi-lune table.

The VV-IX is in our bedroom on a library table, and as a tradition I spin a record every night after we’ve done our “late night sitting in bed” reading, and are ready to hit the hay (thank God for auto-stop!).

The little VV-IV was worrying me as I restored it (where would it fit?) but it’s small enough to live on top of the cabinet in our dining room. This one sees a lot of action, too. I keep a selection of mellower songs in the top drawer, and frequently we’ll turn the fireplace up and the lights down for some dinner music.

And the Vic III found its place in the family room (displacing a VV-100, which will end up down in the music room after rehab). Gotta admit the choice to put it there was partly esthetics – it goes with the period furniture in there – but it also sounds great in that room and is the one people want to hear when they come over.

So yes, I think you can have early phonographs as an integral part of your furnishings, as long as they’re spread far enough apart that they don’t look like a “collection.” (In my experience collections tend to have low-WAF…ha!) But to each his own.

- Mark

Beautiful Home Markola, machines nicely displayed , My opinion is ,if you have so many machines you cant gracefully display them what's the point. the 7 letter word hoarder comes to mind. I know I used to be one! Quality in presentation not quantity. I know I'll say it for you. What a B!###* !!

It has been my experience that a few photographs can be easily incorperated into a rooms decor. Depending on your wife's tolerance level, anywhere from one to a small handful of machines can make nice accents to a rooms decor. The never ending struggle of a collector is how to tastefully display an ever growing number of machines. Generally once you start getting more than 4-6 machines in a room and it starts to look more like a museum or as many wives would say - a hord. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty good sized library where many of my small Berliner gramophones could be easily displayed on bookshelves broken up by books and other antiques and collectibles which made for a very tasteful display. This was my domain where my wife was happy to let me display my prized possessions. As my collection continued to grow, display of these prized possessions continued to be problematic. With each new acquisition, my wife's first question was never "How much?" but always "Where are you going to put that?"
I have been fortunate enough to be able build a separate building dedicated to displaying my collection of phonograph, music boxes and orchestrions (even more problematic to display discretely than phonographs). This is now my happy place where I can immerse myself in my mechanical music collection. I can also be assured that my prized possessions are safe from running children with curious hands. I keep a few machines tastefully displayed as accent pieces in our home with the bulk of my collection in my mechanical music building. My wife was quite happy to reclaim large areas of our home, in fact a mechanical music building - her idea. She didn't have to ask twice.

Markola wrote:most of our furnishings are period pieces which I’ve restored

Well, then it's no surprise that your house is furnished with such exquisite pieces!

I'm also amongst those who intentionally limit his/her "collection" to a number of items that can be easily cared of and played on a regular basis. And I also agree that an entertainment object should be at hand; if it's hard to reach or requires to take a ladder or move furniture around to be used, it'll turn into an annoyance pretty soon.

By looking at pictures I realise, however, that most corners in northern Italian houses are cluttered by radiators and/or stoves, which of course limits the "nice spots" available to set up a cute gramophone corner. In my case, this adds to a very moist underground garage wich is also a floodable area; I am thus forced to keep at home a lot of objects that most people store in cellars or garages, which of course limits the storage area dedicated to more interesting objects. This is why, basically, I hoped that someone could come up with some smart solution that I couldn't devise so far.

Thanks to all who replied and posted pictures, I was pleased to read your messages!