The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A grouping of Edison Doll parts just completed on eBay. In the event that they went to a member here on the Forum, I am in need of a head as well as a torso.
Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Thanks kindly.

The Edison dolls turn up more often than original mechanisms. My mom was a doll collector and had a complete original Edison doll, except for the missing mechanism. The head was a dead-ringer for the one on eBay. The dress probably was not original, but everything else was. She sold it at least five years ago at a doll auction. I don't know what it fetched, but it must have been several thousand.

The mechanism on the eBay auction does not look "right" to me. Is it a replica?

You are correct...the mech thet accompanied the doll on eBay was a replica mechanism. There were a couple different attempts at replicating these mechs. Both attempts resulted in pretty darn good little repro mechs! Nevertheless, even the dolls without the mech are a rarity, representing a wonderful, early example of Edisonia history.

There have been several different production runs of replica phonograph mechanisms of varying quality. The best I have seen were made by Darren Wallace a number of years ago. The top picture shows one of the less accurate replicas. Note the more squared shape of the lower part of the machine.

Some originals had a paper label on the horn, with a list of patents. Some had that information stamped into the horn itself.

None of the replicas I've seen had accurately rendered labels. The fonts were not even close. In this picture the top 3 are repro labels I saw on 3 different replicas. The label on the bottom right is original, on the bottom left is a replica that I made. I spent hours getting it exactly right in every detail. I used one on a replica mechanism I owned prior to getting a doll with original phonograph. I also gave a few of these labels to friends, so at least a few replicas out there do have accurate labels.

This has been an interesting thread on a topic I know too little about. However, I have to say, I can't stop being amused at the OP's statement, "...I am in need of a head as well as a torso." I know, it doesn't take much to entertain me.

JerryVan wrote:This has been an interesting thread on a topic I know too little about. However, I have to say, I can't stop being amused at the OP's statement, "...I am in need of a head as well as a torso." I know, it doesn't take much to entertain me.

Yea...I have been told that I am just full of laughs!