The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi

Looking for a example of a brown wax record made of the metropolitan opera on brown wax that Lionel Mapelson recorded. Would like an example for our museum. I know this is a hard item to find, but someone may have an example by chance.

Thanks
Dustin Ellis

I don't think there will be any of these cylinders in private hands at this point. Here is a quote from wikipedia:

With the co-operation of collectors, by 1962 eventually all existing Mapleson Cylinders had become the property of the The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, a division of The New York Public Library.

As far as I know they are the only existing Mapelson cylinder records. There have been 78, LP and CD releases of portions of them over the years, but I would be amazed if anyone has even one of these in a private collection. The Symposium CD release from England is still available on Amazon.com if that would be helpful to your museum.

Dan

Thanks Dan.

I felt it was a long shot. Never know. These are pretty important cylinders and should be in a archive.