The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This may turn out to be fun. There is another thread right now about Take/Mold numbers. As I have been looking into this topic, I started thinking about something. Collectors who specialize in BA's tend to look for early Take/Mold #'s essentially making the first take and mold the most desirable of any cylinder.

But, let's see who has the highest take or mold #'s out there. I remember seeing a cylinder with 5 takes, (PAT'D.....) if I remember correctly and also recall seeing a cylinder that came from the 100+ mold. (PAT'D...104, or something to that effect.) I will double check in the morning and will post pictures of the highest take and mold in my collection. Let's see those high numbers!

Well that was a HUGE undertaking
Well worth the effort though.

Take 6 is the highest I've got, on BA.2602- "O That We Two Were Maying" by Spencer & Chalmers

Mold no.108 (T1) is the highest, on BA.1884- "Rainbow" by Jones & Murray

I came across some BA duplicates, and found this one- BA1547: "Silver threads among the gold" by Will Oakland.
Mold No.227
This must have been a million seller lol

Wow! I think we probably have a winner!

I do have a topper, caused, I think because of problems with electrical dubbing of an electric Diamond Disc. Cylinder 5499, You Can't Blame Me for That, by Vernon Dalhart & Carson Robison. Take 13, mould 1. On the record, it looks like this: PAT'D... ... ... ... .1 Bob Ault
I don't remember EVER seeing a mould number as high as 227---wow!

Wow! Take 13. I wonder why so many takes were recorded. Perhaps one of the artists had a cold

That's really great! So we have a winner for both takes and molds so far!