The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

In early December members of this forum discussed how a Class M at a Swiss on line Auction could sell for so little.
I am the online bidder who purchased the Class M and I would like to apologize to those members as I wanted to jump in and tell you what I knew but I did not truly believe it was real until the machine arrived this week.
I would also like to thank everyone who speculated on features of the machine from a single as I find your information extremely helpful. I will attempt to provide photos of my new acquisition and any details to foster an open discussion.
But first I would like to explain how I came to be in possession of an Edison Class M for such a great price. As with many other auction participants I like to watch for deals in progress and hope that no one else in the room realizes the value of the phonograph being auctioned. In reality this rarely occurs but most of us who have attended auctions over the years have a story or two where the auction gods favoured someone in the crowd, and if we are lucky we are the ones who are favoured on that particular day. In this case I was curious as to what a Class M would go for and hopped that most of the money in the room was there for the other expensive items. When the Class M started I watched as the price slowly increased by 100 increments and then slowed at 2,300 so I placed a bid as this was still within my spending limit. The bidding kept going up till it stopped at 3,000 when the auction site announced that I was the winner. It took a while until the reality sunk in and I realized that somehow I just purchased a Class M for so little, but truthfully it did not make any sense so I was very concerned about the authenticity of the phonograph, especially after the forum discussion.
When I was negotiating the payment and shipping with the auctioneer he stated that he had received many complaints from online bidders who were upset that their bids did not register. Fortunately he was living to the auction rules and that I was the legal winner, as my online bid was the only one which went through before the hammer dropped. Several of the emails he received offered to pay me over 3 times what I had spent, with one stated that they expected the Edison to go as high as $ 18,000.
So as you can guess I did not want to believe it was true until I picked up my new Edison at the Airport yesterday.
If I can I would like to ask members of this forum to review the attached photos and help me identify what I have.
The Class M is missing the “works tag” but has the patent plate, with the latest date being June 20, 1893. The serial # on the bed plate is 24061 and there is a number 249BF stamped into the wood supporting the brake and governor.
The wood cabinet is a newer reproduction with the finger joints being 1 cm leading me to believe it was made in Europe.
The carriage is perplexing. The carriage base looks identical to one found on photo 2-96 in “The Talking Machine: An Illustrated Compendium” by Fabrizio and Paul. The reproducer is not a Bettini, however. It is an Edison Model C which Paul and Fabrizio describe in their book the “Antique Phonograph: Gadgets, Gizmos & Gimmicks” on page 45, when describing Bettini “for practical reasons, the lesser models were allowed to accept the conventional graphophone-type floating reproducers”.
Could this have been a later (after 1902) replacement of the Automatic reproducers when the owner decided to convert his machine from office use to home listening?

Here are the rest of the photos

Congratulations on your purchase. Don't we all wish for the same luck?

Your Class M carries the later data plate typical of the National Phonograph Company era. That and the serial number would suggest a date of 1896 or 1897. The rubber mandrel suggests the mechanism was originally used in a coin-operated machine. (That would explain the reproduction cabinet.)

The carriage seems to be Bettini, but the part holding the 1902 or later Model C reproducer has a custom-made look to me.

Once again, congratulations!

George P.

I agree with George. The carriage rod and lift are definitely Bettini but the carriage itself doesn't look remotely factory. If you could find a Type N Bettini reproducer you'd have quite a treasure. And yes, the rubber-coated mandrel is characteristic of coin-ops. Definitely a steal, no matter how you look at it.

Plain and simple congrats on that! im excited to have a good look at the pics tommorrow,hope youve got a few of the inside of the case sides and bottom.

Awesome! Congratulations on your fantastic purchase.

My only comment other than it is a cool machine, is that the motor shaft pulley looks like machined brass. That might not be original. That will be a real fun project to put back together! Congrats!

Very Nice Find! congratulations!!! Although I know of a colelctor who paid $25.00 for an all original class M. The person Selling the M had 2 machines, the Class M and a regular Edison Standard, they would not sell the Standard because they thought it was older beig a wind up, they thought the class M was newer because it was electric! But who am I to talk, I own no class M. and for good reason! I would put it to work making records, and wear it out, So I must not own one LOL.

How exciting! And congratulations!

Clay

edisonphonoworks wrote:I own no class M. and for good reason! I would put it to work making records, and wear it out, So I must not own one LOL.

You can't wear out a Class M, it's built like a brick %$#% house!