The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I would be interested in seeing pictures of a removed record shelf (bottom and rear) of a similar cabinet. I found and bought this cabinet over the weekend after questioning whether or not it was even a record cabinet. Luckily there are several examples online that are nearly identical.

My only concern with the cabinet is that the shelves dont have any sort of catch. If the shelves are pulled out too far and let go, it will drop to the floor. Is it possible that is the way it was designed?

None of the other examples online have pegs. I believe it was meant to store BA cylinders in their boxes.

Thanks,
Scott

Scott

Its quite possible this cabinet never had drawer stops, and, as you said, was designed for Amberols in their boxes.

I have an Amberola 75, which has three drawers that slide out and have no stops. I'm confident this was the original design as it was my grandfather's machine when new.

Nice find. Are there any markings on the cabinet that give a clue to the manufacturer? I know that Edison dealt with several cabinet suppliers.

John

Thanks John. Now that you mention it, it is likely that whoever made the 75 cabinet may have also made this one. Are there markings on your cabinet? If so, where?

Here's a picture detailing the drawer stops on a cabinet of mine: The wood stop is simply fastened with two small nails, and maybe glued. Of course, the drawers can't be removed without taking these off.

My one-door cylinder cabinets are hinged on the left side, as is the Amberola 75.

Bob

Here are a few photos of from a cabinet similar to yours (pardon the dust). The person I got it from said that it had been in their wife's family since new. Nice looking cabinet but very light-weight and simply built.
Mike

Thanks for both the on and offline info and pictures. Starting to put this all together. Apparently there are a number of variations and designs, all simple and cheaply built. Here is the inside of mine:

Here are are a few pictures of my Amberola 30 with cabinet. It is the exact same cabinet that is shown on the Intertique page listed below. It is a great little cabinet.
http://www.intertique.com/AmberolaRecordCabinet.html

Rich Gordon

I like these cabinets..

I like the drawers with the 4 surrounding sides, not just a flat base like the one above. I also like drawers that will hold complete cylinder tubes with their boxes.. I'm not too crazy about the drawers with the "pegs" on the bottom of the drawers. I have a few of them, but I think that the plain drawers that let me store a complete cylinder tube and record together wins out every time.

Tony K.

barnphono wrote:Here are a few photos of from a cabinet similar to yours (pardon the dust). The person I got it from said that it had been in their wife's family since new. Nice looking cabinet but very light-weight and simply built.
Mike

Scott,

I had an Amberola 30 setup from original owner. It was identical to this. No stops, no pegs and had the steel runners. And had the same door knob as yours. It was a brass knob, not a handle.

Steve

NEFaurora wrote:I like these cabinets..

I like the drawers with the 4 surrounding sides, not just a flat base like the one above. I also like drawers that will hold complete cylinder tubes with their boxes.. I'm not too crazy about the drawers with the "pegs" on the bottom of the drawers. I have a few of them, but I think that the plain drawers that let me store a complete cylinder tube and record together wins out every time.

Tony K.

I agree. The cabinets that hold the records in boxes are the best, totally open no, clamps or anything like that. Half of my record cabinets are empty because
- I don't want to remove cylinders from thier original boxes
- Cabinet has clamps for 4 min wax boxes, the only ones that fit
- In the Early Amberolas, measurements were so tight that not all records in original boxes fit. For example, 2 minute wax boxes will not fit in some Amberola 1As etcetera.

TAE, what a mess you had there!