The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

does anyone have some info on this machine? I haven't seen a brunswick decal like this one before.

The on/off switch seems to be a modification from someone after it left the factory? I am also not sure what those blocks of wood in the back right are for. Is this something worth going after? It would be a lot of work to refinish...

David

I'm not an expert on Brunswick, but I bet the motor and motorboard are replacements. Brunswick used a complete metal base with good clockwork motors and the controls attached to it as in Columbia machines. That motorboard looks like a rough handmade bastard. Neither it is circular! Brunswick made high quality machines in every detail. The soundbox looks not original. It's a salvaged compound. I have not seen that Brunswick decal before...

This is an early production model Brunswick, probably made in the first year or so after they entered the phonograph business.
So before they started using their famous oval horn and ultona arm.
While I think it's worth saving, I think it'll be quite difficult to find the correct tonearm, and near impossible to find an original grille, so due to its condition, you'd want to get it extremely cheap to make it worth your while.

This is really interesting seeing that early Brunswick machine. I wonder if there any photos of examples all together?

I would love to see a before and after on the cabinet too.

About the motorboard--Wakeman's book states that the earliest Brunswicks had a "black-painted wooden motorboard" to which was fitted a Heinemann motor. We are all more familiar with the Brunswick motor on a steel motorboard.

It may have been cut out to fit the later electric motor, but it may be an original motorboard, suitable for a pattern. And of course a Heinemann motor is not hard to find.