The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Greetings. I own a Columbia Grafonola De Luxe (third style), and I'd like to find a key for it. Can anyone post of a picture of what one should look like?

And if anyone should actually have one for sale, please PM me.

Thanks!

This is the best page around for help with phonograph keys:

https://oldcrank.com/articles/keys/keys.html

I'm familiar with that page, but it only shows two Columbia keys, and doesn't give any indication of which one was used when.

I have not seen that particular style of Deluxe before, it is quite lovely. did those have the music box accessory?

No, I believe that was just the first style De Luxe. That cabinet always frightened me, personally; this one is much more to my liking.

This is my De Luxe with a slightly different cabinet and door style. The second photo shows the working key that came with the phonograph, although it looks like keys that came with Brunswicks. The phonograph had belonged to the owners of a (non-music) retail store in Pennsylvania for decades when I got it more than 20 years ago but I don’t know about the original owner.

Bill

I will post a picture of my early Grafonola and the key that came with it - just for reference. This is the Nonpareil model - but I feel it may be from a similar time period is yours... probably within 3 to 4 years. Take care,

BillH_NJ wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 10:28 pm This is my De Luxe with a slightly different cabinet and door style. The second photo shows the working key that came with the phonograph, although it looks like keys that came with Brunswicks. The phonograph had belonged to the owners of a (non-music) retail store in Pennsylvania for decades when I got it more than 20 years ago but I don’t know about the original owner.

Bill

WOW! That's rather pretty!
I only have two "mignonettes" from '15 in mahogany (Montana phonograph website has its sister in quartered oak *swoon*), I've not seen a De Luxe like yours with the extra upper carving on the front corners though. The casters have a nice clean collar/escutcheon on them. Are the casters original? They look really sharp.

Definitely the Victrola XVI of Columbia machines no doubt!

Duchesne wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 10:56 pm WOW! That's rather pretty!
I only have two "mignonettes" from '15 in mahogany (Montana phonograph website has its sister in quartered oak *swoon*), I've not seen a De Luxe like yours with the extra upper carving on the front corners though. The casters have a nice clean collar/escutcheon on them. Are the casters original? They look really sharp.

The casters appear to be original but I am not certain—they were there when I acquired it. I got it because we happened to be in Charlie Martin’s place in Bristol, PA when a woman came it to ask about selling it for her parents in the Wilkes-Barre area. Charlie turned her down but we were interested in getting it and made a deal with her to get it directly from her parents’ men’s clothing store around Wilkes-Barre. It did have a non-gold elbow on the tonearm but everything else was there and the finish was in great shape.

Bill