The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently purchased a set of six 5.5 inch Berliner records at an estate auction. I haven't been able to find any information about these online. All the information online seems to be about seven inch records. Does anyone know anything about these or how much they might be worth? The titles are: B1002 - All Coons Look Alike, Orchestra, B2501 - Yankee Doodle, W.P. Chambers; B2502 - Thro Georgia, W.P. Chambers; B2503 - Columbia, W.P. Chambers; B2504 - Dixie, W.P. Chambers; B2505 - Nursery Rhymes, W.P. Chambers. The records have a last patent date of 10/29/1895. Any information would be appreciated.

You found one of the holy grails of record collecting. Paul Charosh wrote a book about Berliner discs. He mentioned a letter of 16 December 1897 which listed twelve 5,5" matrices which were sent to the pressing plant on that day. Your discs were pressed from that matrices. Although Mr. Charosh is a leading expert he has never seen such a disc.

I guess you received a number of requests already.

Congratulations! It's amazing that, 117 years later, examples of half of those discs ended up in one place when chances were greatly against their survival. Who knows what else is lurking out there?

Nice super rare find.