The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just curious if anyone has been able to purchase the US ‘Peerless’ cabinet from the double-dealers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana yet? Posted on-line, they fished for information while delaying sale and pretending someone had died to delay the sale, and acting like no one else was interested. Inconsistent stories. What an amateur hour train wreck. After I figured them out, I just withdrew.

I sent them a text and they did not even bother to respond at all. If you heard back at all that in itself was amazing.

Consider yourself lucky that you were spared the bull-hockey.

It was like herding cats but I was able tp make a deal, I picked it up yesterday.

Was it an entire machine... or just the cabinet?

Curt A wrote:Was it an entire machine... or just the cabinet?

It was just the cabinet , someone a long time ago had set a complete Victor 5 motor board into it and a Victrola tonearm, fortunately the Vic 5 motor board was just set onto the cabinet with none of the original US cabinet being altered. I asked about the history of the machine and If the now deceased owner was a collector , his daughter said this was the only machine her father had and it had been in that home as long as she could remember, it was a very neat bayou style house that was reportedly was 150 - 200 years old, her dad had owned it the last 47 years.

tictalk wrote:

Curt A wrote:Was it an entire machine... or just the cabinet?

It was just the cabinet , someone a long time ago had set a complete Victor 5 motor board into it and a Victrola tonearm, fortunately the Vic 5 motor board was just set onto the cabinet with none of the original US cabinet being altered. I asked about the history of the machine and If the now deceased owner was a collector , his daughter said this was the only machine her father had and it had been in that home as long as she could remember, it was a very neat bayou style house that was reportedly was 150 - 200 years old, her dad had owned it the last 47 years.

I don’t mean to sound like Debbie Downer but you might have to just 3D print or make a top mech out of Sculpy for that thing lol!
Finding an Opera mech will be a real challenge!

Ok, what's the deal with this thing? Is it an aftermarket cabinet for an Opera? Was it a complete phonograph at one time? Cylinder? Disc? It's discussed here as if everyone knows what it is and all about its recent offering for sale. Clue us in will ya?

JerryVan wrote:Ok, what's the deal with this thing? Is it an aftermarket cabinet for an Opera? Was it a complete phonograph at one time? Cylinder? Disc? It's discussed here as if everyone knows what it is and all about its recent offering for sale. Clue us in will ya?

The Peerless was the U-S Phonograph Company's top of the line model and extremely rare. The only floor model phonograph they produced. I believe that this model used U-S Opera top works (their top of the line table model) in stunning white with gold pin striping. The picture below shows the upper works from a U-S Peerless restored beautifully by Paul Baker years ago.

Doug

Readers of Phonographs with Flair have known about the U-S Peerless since 2001. (Click on images to sharpen them.)

George P.