The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi,

I am wondering if anybody knows about a book on cylinder record boxes (the various brands and their different designs of boxes). I am very much intersted in this matter. So, I was looking for decent sources of information and photos of boxes. But obviously nobody ever has published a comprehensive guide in form of a book.

There is a phantastic website in France, run by Julien Anton, that shows a lot of rare boxes: phonorama.fr. But it is "only" a website ...

There are also some books about single brands or types of records with a few photos (i.e the great one by Nauck & Sutton about Indestructibles). But I am looking for something "bigger" ... a well illustrated coffee-table book with many photos and some basic informations on brands.

So, if nobody works on it yet, I like to get the ball rolling and see if we can find a publisher for such a project. Besides a publisher I would of course need to have a lot of help from anybody who is collecting cylinder records/boxes. Anyone interested in this project please let me know! You can contact me by email at [email protected]

I have asked a few cylinder record collectors during the past months for their support. So, there is already a small number of people who could supply material. But as we all know there are so many brands and variations of cylinder boxes, that every help would be very welcome.

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Helmut

Is nobody interested in this?

It would be interesting, the HD photos these days, some very nice books can be a reality.

I would certainly pay a good price for this. It would be a massive project though...

Could you provide the link to Julien Anton's site?

Thanks! Anyone else interested in this - especially in collaborating i.e. sharing photos/infos?

Julien's website is phonorama.fr - enjoy the images!

max_phenol wrote:Thanks! Anyone else interested in this - especially in collaborating i.e. sharing photos/infos?

Julien's website is phonorama.fr - enjoy the images!

The huge value of this info for me is in restoring cases by reprinting
parts of them to repair damaged cases.I have seen some very fine
reproduction cases made and they are spectacular.

Do you mean reproductions for yourself or which someone has made for his own? There are some reproduction boxes available for sale, but just for Columbia, Edison or Lambert as far as I know. If you know anyone who offers other boxes for sale, please let me know.

It would be also interesting to find a source for blank boxes in several formats. Maybe you have some advice on this too?

However, the book I would like to do is not meant to be an instruction for making reproductions. It will show the huge variety of boxes, so collectors will get an idea what is missing in their collection. And again, everyone who likes to participate in this is highly welcome to get in touch with me.

I am waiting for a reply from one of the biggest cylinder collectors in the world who maybe is already working on such a book (I just heard rumours). But as long as I don't know for sure, I will continue with my own plans.