The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Did Columbia have give-away machines like the Victor P series? The big case but small motor with no decals made me curious about this machine. The wood dust ring is something I haven't seen before.

I've been involved in this hobby for 55 years and this is a first for me.

That machine usually turns up with a
tag which reads “American Woman’s League”

Different dust ring but all else appears the same. Thanks for the additional information.

Wow, I've never seen one like that before!

There are some discrepancies that I noticed. The wooden turntable ring is not original. It is a piece of veneer stained and finished, glued around the turntable. Some of these machines had rings, and others did not. Remove the turntable and see if there are any screw holes in the motorboard. The block in the back of the cabinet is wrong. The arm should fit directly to the back of the cabinet. Also the motor, even though the correct style doesn't look right. Columbia never had an elongated hole in the cabinet for the control and latch. The elongated hole is crudely done. This machine can be restored back to original. If this is a purchase, see if you can talk the seller down, showing these points.
Harvey Kravitz

Harvey, this was already purchased at an auction but I couldn't carry it home with me. One thing that is interesting is that the cracked motorboard also looks to have cracked the ring too so it appears that the ring was there when the board cracked. I also wondered about the humpback piece on the back bracket. It appeared to be old so I figured it might be contemporary to the machine. It was an inexpensive purchase so if it's a frankenphone, not a great loss. I actually was after another machine, Edison Triumph, with a cool dealer tag as shown here..

That wood turntable ring looks really cool. I'm open to it being added or original, but to me, it looks great. It's reasonably thick, quarter-sawn, no signs of screw holes that I can see. I'd side on it possibly being original to the cabinet, but I'm no expert--and who made the cabinet, I wonder. Love the idea of it, though, and wish that it had taken off as an idea, although I'm sure it could be prone to cracking, warping, etc.

Phonofreak wrote:There are some discrepancies that I noticed. The wooden turntable ring is not original. It is a piece of veneer stained and finished, glued around the turntable. Some of these machines had rings, and others did not. Remove the turntable and see if there are any screw holes in the motorboard. The block in the back of the cabinet is wrong. The arm should fit directly to the back of the cabinet. Also the motor, even though the correct style doesn't look right. Columbia never had an elongated hole in the cabinet for the control and latch. The elongated hole is crudely done. This machine can be restored back to original. If this is a purchase, see if you can talk the seller down, showing these points.
Harvey Kravitz

You might look more closely at the photographs. The speed control extends through a notch
In the top molding of the cabinet. The lid catch runs through a second, round hole drilled in the
same moulding. The shadowy photo and the dark color of the cabinet may have tricked the
eye into seeing a shared hole. As far as the wood block and the wooden dust ring are concerned,
It is probably better to not use the word “never” where a Columbia scheme machine is concerned.
The wooden dust ring has been noted on a couple of early Grafonolas. As far as the little block
Behind the back bracket is concerned note that most, if not all Woman’s League machines feature
this oddity. The Woman’s League machine cabinet was made from a left-over Talk-O-Phone “Herbert”
cabinet set on a larger base, with a new overhanging lid added. The cabinet was too small to support
Columbia’s usual Claent machine rear mount assembly and retain proper needle point alignment.
The little block was an inexpensive expedient which solved the difficulty nicely.

So what were these for? Extra large base for extra stability? Smaller crank (it seems?) and single spring for easier operation (and weight savings) by women?