The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Perhaps some of you have already seen this precious German phonograph toy selling for many hundreds in auctions. Finally I found out something about its history.

It was manufactured by Erhard & Soehne, founded in 1844 and located in Schwaebisch Gmuend near Stuttgart, Germany. E & S specialised on fire gilded and silvered dollhouse accessories of highest quality. The company employed many thousands of well trained workers and exported large amounts of toys namely to England and the US until its close in the mid-1920s

Obviously the phonograph toy below was manufactured in the early 1900s. On the right side of a fire gilded and richly decorated base plate (2 x 3") is soldered a small crank driven musical mechanism housed in a gilded drum.

During winding a large gear is turned which engages in a small gear driving a threaded cylinder. A silvered soundbox connected with a small funnel follows the threads while some mechanical clink clank comes out of the drum.

In the following years phonographs and gramophones were often seen in dollhouses, but this must be the most luxurious model.

That's pretty elaborate for a dollhouse toy! What an interesting little artifact. Can you share its base measurements?

I'm particularly attracted to "...some mechanical clink clank com[ing] out of the drum."

George P.

"richly decorated base plate (2 x 3")"

Here is another view:

Here is an excerpt from Erhard & Soehne catalogue:

The musical movement in the drum is known as a "Manivelle", and these small hand cranked musical boxes were often used in toys.

The Manivelle is thought to have been invented by August L'Epee in France, and was later taken up by Paillard who produced them in quantity.

Today the term "Manivelle" is used generically to refer to any musical box which is hand turned.