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Are Edison records with Clarence Ferguson's label on them hard to find or considered desirable?
Dave D

Strange to say, after collecting over 40 years I had never seen his label until last night! A few months back I bought a small stack of really clean disks and was finally sorting through them last night when I saw his name and address rubber-stamped on the jacket. I will have to look to see if I have any others. Ferguson was the last Edison dealer and sold new old stock for many years after Edison went out of business. The record I have is apparently new old stock, although the jacket has deteriorated. While interesting, I doubt many people would assign much premium to a jacket with Ferguson's name on it -- I know I wouldn't.

I have several Blue Amberols with Clarence Ferguson's stamp. That stamp probably does not add any extra market value, given that few people today remember who Clarence Ferguson was. Still, these cylinders have emotional value for me.

In the summer of 2012 while visiting friends in Wisconsin, I stopped by Merrill Memorial Park in Merrill, WI to see Clarence's grave. Here is a photo of his grave marker, which shows his death date but no birth date. It identifies him simply as an "Edison Phonograph Dealer". I think he deserves a better epitaph than that.

He definitely should get credit for keeping the Edison business, repairs and sales going well after West Orange had hung it up...

Valecnik wrote:He definitely should get credit for keeping the Edison business, repairs and sales going well after West Orange had hung it up...

Indeed. He certainly kept things going. In that haul of Edison cylinders and DDs I bought last July, there are lots of them with the Ferguson stamp either on the DD sleeve or on the underside of the BA cylinder lid. These all appear to be NOS, too, which is a nice bonus.

Sean

I just picked these Ferguson boxes up on ebay. The seller didn't describe them as such. I suspect they are just the later style (orange) Blue Amberol box with his label pasted over them.

Here is Mr. Ferguson at his home in 1969.

My friend Jerry Donnell bought from Mr.Fergson many years ago.I have several Blue Amberols and Purple Amberols that I got from Jerry that has Clarence Ferguson's stamp on them.They're really special to me.edisonplayer