The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

#1
- Serial number: 1677
- Wood: Mahogany
- Owner: Me, (no previous owners known)
- Notes: Marked "Opera"

#2
- Serial number: 2667
- Wood: Oak
- Owner: Me, (no previous owners known)
- Notes: Marked "Opera"

1)
Serial number: 3179
Wood: Mahogany
Owner: Me, (no previous owners known)
Notes: Marked "Opera".

2)
Serial number: 2101
Wood: Mahogany
Owner: Me, (no previous owners known)
Notes: Marked "Opera"

Sn 2636
wood oak
paid $1000 for it in 1998

Serial No. 635
Mahogany.
Owner. Personal
Originally from Kingston area, Ont.

Serial No. 2438
Chassis only, no case
Owner: Personal
Originally from Kingston area, Ont.

Serial No. 3300
Oak
Owner: I sold locally to a friend
Originally from Ottawa, Ont

Serial No. 4252 (Concert)
Mahogany
Owner: Personal
Originally from Ottawa, Ont

Serial number: 4364
Wood: Mahogany
Owner: Me, (purchased from Kurt Nauck)
Notes: Marked "Concert"

Machines currently in my care:

Oak Opera #1046
Metal School Model with #11 bell #3353
Mahogany Concert (Opera) #4172

Jerry B.

Serial number: 2009
- Wood: Oak
- Owner: Me
- Notes: None

Thanks to everyone who has contributed data so far. We're making progress. I already had a database of 37 known School Phonographs, I have since added 66 Opera / Concert entries.

Many have come in response to this thread. I found quite a few others by searching the forum for posts and for sale entries. A Google search yielded a surprising number of machines from auction, dealer, and collector sites. All help.

We still need a lot more to have enough to draw useful conclusions, but it's a great start. Right now I'm particularly interested in narrowing down exactly where the change from Opera to Concert occurred. At the moment, the highest Opera number I have is 3980, while the earliest Concert reported is 4172. So the change evidently happened somewhere in between. That's a pretty small gap, but I'd love to narrow it further.

One fun discovery I made in my Google search was serial number 1302, auctioned in Pittsfield, MA in May 2019. That happens to be the very same Opera I bought in 1966, and subsequently sold in 1970 -- in Springfield, MA, not far from where it recently sold. I still have the classified ad where I found it. I negotiated the price down from $100 to $85 (with 120 cylinders) but that was a lot of money at the time -- over three times more than I had paid for any phonograph up to that date. The 2019 price was $4,750, presumably not including buyer's fee. I'm glad to know that machine is still around and well cared-for.

Please keep those numbers coming!

My Opera:

Serial number: 585
Wood: Mahogany
Notes: Marked "Opera"

My favorite machine! But still has a little wobble despite tons of tinkering!

Ser.#: 4040
Wood: Oak
Owner: Me. Came from the original family in Maine with original record cabinet full of cylinders.
Notes: "Concert"

Iowa Dale