The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I spotted this Victor at the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, Minnesota this morning. Was hoping to see others as the mansion was built from 1905-09, in the heyday of phonographs, but was the only one.

Nice looking VTLA or very early VXI.

Lovely machine. Please do not touch? My L door loves to be touched

Jonsheff wrote:Lovely machine. Please do not touch? My L door loves to be touched

They must have had trouble with the irresistibly of touching because the knobs are all off as well.

I can't understand why people steal things like the handles or knobs off of doors. When I bought my HMV 163 one of the oak knobs for the doors had been twisted off. Really annoying as it took a while to source a replacement which in the end came from another collector in Germany. I count myself lucky that I was able to find a suitable replacement. Honestly some people seem to think that if things are there in front of them then its an open invitation to take them.

There's an L-door in the Asa Packer Mansion in Jim Thorpe (Mauch Chunk), PA. You can see it on the house tour but it's back in a corner and inaccessible to the public. I'd love to know more about it. There's also a big Orchestrion in the upstairs hall; it's in working order and they demonstrate it on the tour. Makes a big noise!

The petty theft of these items is nothing new. Over 20 years ago, I had a booth in an antique mall, selling various phono and radio items. If I were not present in the booth, I routinely had to lock up knobs (both phonos and radios) as well as cranks and (especially) reproducers/soundboxes and the like.

I toured the Asa Packer mansion several years ago. The Orchestrion is definitely worth seeing and hearing.

Good looking dome top VTLA. It's entirely possible (and likely probable) that the knobs were removed intentionally (and the lid likely locked) by the mansion curator(s) to discourage visitors from opening them.

Doug

CharliePhono wrote:The petty theft of these items is nothing new. Over 20 years ago, I had a booth in an antique mall, selling various phono and radio items. If I were not present in the booth, I routinely had to lock up knobs (both phonos and radios) as well as cranks and (especially) reproducers/soundboxes and the like.

Ditto ! But not just theft of soundboxes , records taken from machines ( the cranks were always at the front desk ) but every time we went in the motors were completely wound down , speed controls altered so they wouldn't play properly when staff ( unfamiliar with gramophones ) tried to demonstrate them , a real nightmare