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The pictures are kind of blurry. It looks like lever speed control with the crescent shaped top.
Harvey Kravitz

For days I've been trying to find time to get over to my storage barn. I knew we had a BN stored there, and so I dug it out and brought it home, so as to make a comparison to the BN's above. It seems to accurately follow the description given in Robert Baumbach's book, "Columbia Phonograph Companion, Volume II", page 90. Specifically, it has the embossed horn, the Grand reproducer and the curved speed/stop lever on the left front of the deck. In addition, it has a later style crank.

BTW, the tone arm on this one is not aluminum, rather it appears to be nickeled brass, made in several pieces.

Hopefully this information will shed some light on the mystery.

PS, The early BN picture I posted above also seems to accurately follow the description in the Columbia Phonograph Companion, page 89.

PPS, So far, of all the BN's I have seen in person, and of those found online, none have the style speed control shown in the OP's picture, and none have shown up on the right front corner of the deck.

The earliest of the Columbia BN's had the Aluminum tone arm, and Analyzing reproducer. So the question about this machine is the speed control, and the motor.
Harvey Kravitz

Sorry for not keeping up with the thread. I contacted the seller with interest, and he gave me the ambitious price of 2500... yeah. Thank you guys for clearing this one up, I can still could contact the seller and see if we can get a picture of the motor.

Martin

Thanks for following up on that Martin. It would be interesting to see the motor, but not if it represents an inconvenience to you. That $2500 price tag seems very unrealistic to me, likely a value settled on out of lack of knowledge or absence of expert advice. For reference, there is one offered on Intertique for $900 and I paid $450 for the late one shown above. Cheers, Russie