ColoradoPhonograf wrote:Here is a portion of a large advertisement for a Victrola XVIII. If anyone would like to use it as an avatar or other uses....feel free to use it.

That must be one of those XVIII's from down under. I hear the cranks are on the other side and wind in the opposite direction!

Dave

Dave

Dave,

Great image! I really like the painting (?) of the phonograph on the sailboat—I wonder how many people played their cylinder machines while sailing.

This would have made an interesting line of advertising among the nautical community:

The EDISON PHONOGRAPH

No Sailboat Is Complete Without One!

— MordEth

Discman's ad is for an Amberola 1A in the Herzog cabinet with early rococo grille. I don't think I've ever seen one of these in real life. Does anybody out there have this cabinet and grille?

Greg,

While this is not my machine here is a real example:

gregbogantz wrote:Discman's ad is for an Amberola 1A in the Herzog cabinet with early rococo grille. I don't think I've ever seen one of these in real life. Does anybody out there have this cabinet and grille?

Yep - I've seen several, and 6 kind owners have answered my questionnaire on 1As and 1Bs, the results of which will appear in the June 2009 issue of the Sound Box. (The first installment of the Amberola article will appear in the March issue - - the story behind the cabinets will be Part 2.)

Great photo, Auxetophile!

George P.

I also note that all 3 of those Amberolas in the picture are in the early Weber cabinet with the 3 grille variations. I'd love to be put in contact with the owner, if he/she hasn't already responded to my query...

George P.

Ok so i figured that i would scan this one today so here you go...

Aaron

Aaron,

That Berliner Gramophone ad is interesting in that it is one of the few that employed the word "Zonophone" as a test label to market the Berliner Gramophone. (Sometimes collectors are confused by this, thinking that the Zonophone - a slightly later machine - was being marketed here, or that it was an exact duplicate of the Berliner Improved Gramophone! Not so - it was only a name at the time of your ad.) I've seen evidence of this activity during the fall of 1897 and early 1898. Is there a date on your ad?

Frank Seaman was aware of the potential confusion between "Gramophone" and "Graphophone" in the minds of customers (people still confuse them today!). Seaman wanted to experiment with a different name for the Berliner Gramophone, but had his hands slapped by the Berliner management who insisted on marketing the machine only as the "Gramophone." In late 1899, Seaman began marketing a new machine - not manufactured by Berliner, and dusted off his old label: the Zonophone. This was the machine we know today by that name.

Nice ad!

George P.