The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi John:

Many thanks for posting that. So that's the $6,000 version! Funny, from the photo, it looks like it would be smaller than the (illustration of the) $4000 model. But, I'm glad to see that there's still at least one around.

DS

Sorry for not posting sooner, but I was busy yesterday and I confess, I wanted to see what reactions this would get before I posted again. Actually, the cabinet that I posted is a 'ringer'. A friend of mine passed away a few weeks ago, and I've been helping the family clean out the condo in a beautiful old 1928 apartment building in Louisville. The lobby furnishings are all original, and this cabinet -- which is the spitting image of the $6K Edison cabinet -- is in the lobby. When I first saw it I about had a heart attack, but it is built as a piece of furniture, not as a phonograph. You are correct that it is smaller than the Edison cabinet, being well under 6' tall. Interesting nonetheless because it is exactly the same cabinet, only scaled down. Arts & Crafts collectors may be interested to know that the floor of the lobby is Moravian tile; faience and jardinieres are all Rookwood. Lovely old building.

bah...

so are there any known remaining examples of such machines? and even though they may have been among the most expensive at the time of manufacture, would they still be now?

and regarding the good wine and subtlety post a few posts back, I'm fine with either. I just truly didn't get the obscure (to me) yale-related references.

brianu wrote:bah...

so are there any known remaining examples of such machines? and even though they may have been among the most expensive at the time of manufacture, would they still be now?

and regarding the good wine and subtlety post a few posts back, I'm fine with either. I just truly didn't get the obscure (to me) yale-related references.

Like Brianu I'd wonder what an original would go for it it came up. Probably not as much as one might guess. There would only be a very few with the space to accommodate it. I'm guessing it would not go for more than $25-30K, in the range of a school machine or Idelia, even though based on both rarity and original cost, it should go many times higher...

Uncle Vanya wrote: it is the large Gothic Edison machine at Yale.

How unsubtle must be my hints?

Fail.

Retrograde wrote:

Uncle Vanya wrote: it is the large Gothic Edison machine at Yale.

How unsubtle must be my hints?

Fail.

Please pardon me, but it has been nearly thirty years since I visited the residential college (Calhoun, I think) where the Edison machine resides, I did think that the chairs in the photograph seemed to be a bit oversized, and as I recall :the machine had been placed against a brick wall, rather than plaster, but the room WAS paved wit Mercer tiles.

how about EMG they always go for thousands! about £5,500 is around the average for a emg 10a or 10b
Alex

Uncle Vanya wrote:

Retrograde wrote:

Uncle Vanya wrote: it is the large Gothic Edison machine at Yale.

How unsubtle must be my hints?

Fail.

Please pardon me, but it has been nearly thirty years since I visited the residential college (Calhoun, I think) where the Edison machine resides, I did think that the chairs in the photograph seemed to be a bit oversized, and as I recall :the machine had been placed against a brick wall, rather than plaster, but the room WAS paved wit Mercer tiles.

I read an article a few years ago in Caps or In the Groove about someone and Bob Baumbach removing this machine from Yale. Don't remember where it went. Anyone else remember that article?

A friend is buying a Vernis Martin XVIII. That's about at the top of the rarity list for Victrolas.

Jerry B. wrote:A friend is buying a Vernis Martin XVIII. That's about at the top of the rarity list for Victrolas.

I'd say that some of the special order art cases would be rarer, though a Vernis Martin might be more valuable even though Victor made a number of them.