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Check this one out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lyons-and-Healy-Pho ... 7C294%3A50

It would appear that Lyon & Healy took a VV IX table model and fitted the works into a very handsome console cabinet.

estott wrote:
It would appear that Lyon & Healy took a VV IX table model and fitted the works into a very handsome console cabinet.

Your observation is correct. I found one of these for a friend of mine several years back. It contained a victrola IX. What's interesting is that they did not even bother to take the front doors off the victrola. They were just folded back against the sides of the cabinet and slopped some dark paint or varnish over them to hide any difference in color.

Also interesting is the story behind it. We purchased it from the original owner, a quite elderly lady in Minneapolis who had bought it new with her first paycheck as a school teacher, newly married. It's the only time I've been involved in the purchase of anything phonographic from it's original and living owner.

I noticed that machine too. so, unlike the cabinets of other companies (like lundstrom) that were simply sold empty as it were, those of L and H actually already had installed in them another company's phonographs (here, a victrola) before they were sold complete on the retail market? if that's true, wouldn't they have run into some legal issues with the makers of the phonographs they were incorporating?

Hard to tell if there would be legal problems. Douglas fitted Victor open horn machines into aftermarket cabinets, complete with the Victor plate. Babson fitted Amberola 30 machines into csabinets as well. I suspect that if they paid for the machines up front and did not conceal the origins there wouldn't be much for Victor or Edison to do- and they were mostly concerned with getting the market price.

estott wrote:Hard to tell if there would be legal problems. Douglas fitted Victor open horn machines into aftermarket cabinets, complete with the Victor plate. Babson fitted Amberola 30 machines into csabinets as well. I suspect that if they paid for the machines up front and did not conceal the origins there wouldn't be much for Victor or Edison to do- and they were mostly concerned with getting the market price.

I thought the babson cabinets were like the lundstrom ones - simply sold alone to people who separately puchased the phonograph and then installed it into the cabinet on their own.

but as to the rest, that makes sense, but it must also have made for some terribly expensive machines - if the secondary company is paying market price (even wholesale price) for the phonograph, and then building their own cabinets and installing the phonos into them. any idea what some of those set-ups might have retailed for?

Babson sold the machines complete. I suspect they were able to undercut Edison on cabinet prices and their cabinet for the 30 is better built than the 75 and (I believe) has more record capacity.

estott wrote:Babson sold the machines complete. I suspect they were able to undercut Edison on cabinet prices and their cabinet for the 30 is better built than the 75 and (I believe) has more record capacity.

huh... never knew that. the old man couldn't have been too happy about that.

The attraction of these cabinets was that they offered a big look for a modest price. Most likely, this cabinet cost only $50-$60, so with a $75 Victrola IX inside, you received the looks and performance of a $250 Victrola console for half the price.