A smile from the cylinder cabinet gods.
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 5:33 pm
A bit of good fortune. There was a local auction on Saturday that had several phonographs and related items. I had intended to go, but something came up and I couldn’t. A fellow collector friend did, however. He picked up a cylinder record cabinet for less than $20, knowing it might be something I’d like, and let me have it for what he paid for it. Generous of him indeed!
Anyhow, here it is. Unfortunately somebody recently had it who had the delicacy in handling it of King Kong. The bottom of the top drawer had come loose from the drawer front and the bottom had dropped down, jamming both the first and second drawers (which could have been easily freed by pushing up from the below when the 3rd drawer was opened). Their solution was to force drawer two open by putting so much pressure on it that the pivot hinge pin gave way splitting the corner out of the drawer front. A couple of other drawer bottoms are split. On the other hand the rough treatment left it in a condition to scare away most bidders.
The good news is that all the splits should be fairly simple to repair. I also found everything missing inside the cabinet except the key (all the drawers have locks), including the pivot pin, the piece broken out of the drawer front, 3 missing record holder tubes (and all the tubes are in excellent condition), and a price tag indicating that the cabinet was for sale at some time in the past by Nipper’s Choice, a dealer in Keene, New Hampshire. The finish needs some restoration.
I did not find this exact cabinet in either of George and Tim’s accessory related books. Does anybody know for sure who the maker was and when it might have been made?
I am also interested in opinions about what wood this is and about the proper finish color. The cabinet does not appear to ever have been refinished, but is pretty light now.
Clay
Anyhow, here it is. Unfortunately somebody recently had it who had the delicacy in handling it of King Kong. The bottom of the top drawer had come loose from the drawer front and the bottom had dropped down, jamming both the first and second drawers (which could have been easily freed by pushing up from the below when the 3rd drawer was opened). Their solution was to force drawer two open by putting so much pressure on it that the pivot hinge pin gave way splitting the corner out of the drawer front. A couple of other drawer bottoms are split. On the other hand the rough treatment left it in a condition to scare away most bidders.
The good news is that all the splits should be fairly simple to repair. I also found everything missing inside the cabinet except the key (all the drawers have locks), including the pivot pin, the piece broken out of the drawer front, 3 missing record holder tubes (and all the tubes are in excellent condition), and a price tag indicating that the cabinet was for sale at some time in the past by Nipper’s Choice, a dealer in Keene, New Hampshire. The finish needs some restoration.
I did not find this exact cabinet in either of George and Tim’s accessory related books. Does anybody know for sure who the maker was and when it might have been made?
I am also interested in opinions about what wood this is and about the proper finish color. The cabinet does not appear to ever have been refinished, but is pretty light now.
Clay
