The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I own an Edison William & Mary Console, model WMC-33 in walnut finish. According to Frow, this model first appeared in April, 1922 in brown mahogany, and from November, 1923 in varnished walnut. Mine is in the walnut finish. This model was available until August 1927. Mine has the 10"-12" keys, which I think came around 1923? The thing that is different about my cabinet is the way the reproducer was shipped. Sure enough, it was shipped in the same location to the left of the horn that other DD reproducers were. But instead of being held by a wooden cradle, it had a very different method. What is weird is this method looks to be more difficult to do than the simple wooden cradle. I told Uncle Vanya about it and he had never seen it, and thought it might indicate very late production. This is pure speculation, but could the factory have run out of wood cradles and did this as a stop gap? This is a curious hybrid way of making a simple thing more complex. There is what looks like the front part of a cradle to hold the front of the reproducer. Then there is a hole drilled right through the floor of the cabinet. And to hold the neck of the reproducer, a another hole was drilled through a cross brace. There are two small screw holes on the floor, which certainly held the securing strap, but that is missing. Has anyone ever seen a cabinet with this odd way of securing the reproducer?

Well, that's kind of cool. And Edison was sure about cutting costs! I have a Chippendale that was made in late in 1923 and it doesn't have that in it yet. It used the earlier style.

Earl, Is your Chippendale the C-32 console model? If it is, does your console Chippendale have that wooden cross brace going from the floor to the side wall? If you look carefully at the Cabinet Factory sticker, you can barely see a date on it. It looks like 1923 to me, or it could be 1926 but I don't think so. Does everyone agree with me that this machine in finished in varnished walnut, or could it be brown mahogany????

The one I have is a C-19 and I was messed up as the date on that sticker is February 12th 1924. The guy that I got it from had written down on a sheet of paper that his mother bought it late in 1923 or late in 1924. She couldn't remember but it must have been 1924.

Maybe they didn't do that on the upright machines if there was more room in the horn area. But if that cost less money, than the only way they would have kept using that holder is because they had 10,000 of them already made up...

That's really interesting, Marc!

To me, it seems that this development may have saved precious pennies in the construction of the cabinet, but as far as securing the reproducer, it would seem that 2 screws would've still been necessary to anchor it to the bottom of the cabinet, meaning the cost differential likely wouldn't have been very much. Someone still would've been needed to be employed for that task.

I hope others here might examine their cabinets for such a feature, and report with a post.

EarlH wrote:The one I have is a C-19 and I was messed up as the date on that sticker is February 12th 1924. The guy that I got it from had written down on a sheet of paper that his mother bought it late in 1923 or late in 1924. She couldn't remember but it must have been 1924.

Maybe they didn't do that on the upright machines if there was more room in the horn area. But if that cost less money, than the only way they would have kept using that holder is because they had 10,000 of them already made up...

Earl, could you expand a little on this? Particularly with the serial number of your C 19, and exactly what is the sticker with the "February 12th 1924" date you refer to?

Best,
Fran

Sure Fran, I'll be brief. Here's a picture of that sticker and the serial number on the machine is 176501. I have the machine all apart right now as I'm refinishing it, so I don't have any picture of the ID tag. But I did find that I had the serial number included with the file name for the pictures.

Great stuff guys...! I've never seen this holding method on the later Diamond Disc Machines. I just thought that they all had the wooden cradles...or nothing at all.

Thanks for the post!

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

EarlH wrote:Sure Fran, I'll be brief. Here's a picture of that sticker and the serial number on the machine is 176501. I have the machine all apart right now as I'm refinishing it, so I don't have any picture of the ID tag. But I did find that I had the serial number included with the file name for the pictures.

Thank you, Earl! That's fascinating!

Best,
Fran

Can anyone weigh in on their opinion if my W&MC-33 is in walnut or mahogany? Or do you need a better close up of the wood grain?

marcapra wrote:Can anyone weigh in on their opinion if my W&MC-33 is in walnut or mahogany? Or do you need a better close up of the wood grain?

A close up pic would be better.
But from the picture of the inside left door it sure looks like Mahogany to me with that banded ribbon grain pattern.

Larry Crandell