The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I had a fairly lucky weekend. I went to an auction to bid on an outside horn Columbia and ended up winning that machine, a nice suitcase home, a Sonora floor model, and box of cylinders for less than I had in my mind I would go on the Columbia. I was quite pleased. It was me and one other guy and he was not being very agressive. I am not sure what the best deal was, but I picked up the Sonora for $10 and the cylinders for about 75 cents each. The only disappointment was there was also a nice Standard and two large horns, one horn was a nice Edison Home model and the other was an after market. Both horns were sitting on the floor. When I picked up my winnings I grabbed the Home horn as I assumed it went with the Home. The Auction runner said no, the other horn went with the Home. He showed me that they had the lot numbers marked that way. The standard sold to an online bidder. I pleaded with auctioneer but he said it had to stay the way it was sold. Oh well.

The box of cylinders was comprised of one totally moldy 2'er, a few 2 minute indestructible and a bunch of Blue Amberol ICS French lessons. Not sure I will listen to more than one of those Notice the interesting lid label on one of the cylinder boxes. This the first time I have seen one of these. Kind of a "disc-o-file" for cylinders.

I was very happy, my wife, not so much

I have not found much information on Sonora's on line. Anyone know anything about the one I picked up? (It's a fairly plain one.)

Brad,

Congrats, Great haul!!! The decal on that Home looks perfect!

Regards,
John

Great stuff Brad. Love to hear those stories. Since I have collected phonographs, my favorite aspect is exactly what you went through this weekend. It's great when you expect to pay "X" amount of dollars for something, and walk away with loads of stuff at or below the price you expected to pay originally.

Three new machines...$10 for the Sonora!! Love to hear that. That beats my one dollar "Operaphone" I bought because the Sonora looks to be in pretty good shape and won't take too much to finish it.

Congrats and keep hunting!