The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Listed now on Ebay as:

Antique Brunswick Phonograph Wind Up Record Player Circassian Walnut

Looks like a Columbia shaped Lid, on a Period Victor Machine, with Brunswick guts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Brunswi ... SwZ1BXf93y

That is diffidently not a Brunswick... Someone has done some rearranging...

My gut reaction is that the lid is original to the case; but the absence of a decal makes me suspicious...

Bill

Yes, the lid and the case obviously belong together and this is a fairly high-end case. It does not resemble any Victor case that I have seen. As far as I know anybody could have used the doors over the horn opening design after Victor's patent ran out. I did not spot it on a "quick and dirty" (i.e. I might have missed something ) flip through the Brunswick book available from The Antique Phonograph Society. All I have time for at the moment. But of course that does not necessarily mean it is not a Brunswick, as this would obviously not be a run-of-the-mill model for any manufacturer.

Beautiful.

Clay

Is that a sliding counterweight in the tone arm? Very interesting piece with such a beautiful cabinet!

Henry wrote:Is that a sliding counterweight in the tone arm? Very interesting piece with such a beautiful cabinet!

Yes. It is a Brunswick "Ultona" arm that (with various adjustments) plays Diamond Discs with a diamond stylus, other vertical cut records like Pathés with a sapphire ball stylus, and regular lateral cut records with a steel needle. A really slick design. The mystery at this point is whether it's original to this elegant machine or a substitution.

Clay

As best I can make out from the photo, to my untrained eye the speed control dial and the turntable brake lever resemble those on my Victor XI, but of course the arm and sound box obviously aren't.

It looks like everything but the tone arm and reproducer are original to the machine. Only the tonearm and reproducer appear to be Brunswick parts. Could be a high end Columbia or maybe a Silvertone that suffered from pot metal problems so they just replaced them with Brunswick parts. Very pretty cabinet though.

For some reason it looks like one of those Bush & Lane cabinets to me. That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that machine. They made quite a few pianos in that wood book matched like that as well. But they would have put a decal under the lid, and they used the same decals on their piano fallboards. Too bad that part of the machine has gone missing as it really is quite attractive.

Phonogal, I think your on to something!

I found a picture of a tabletop Silvertone with a similar lid.
The turntable brake and speed control look like Silvertone.
The crank looks like Silvertone.

I'm kinda' thinkin' its a Hi-End Silvertone!

It would be great to find an add to verify this.

Bob S.