The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

For a summer project I've been going through some of my machines in storage and have come across a few that have puzzled me ever since I found them. This one appears, at first glance, to be an Edison Class M, but it has a crank, and a factory-cut crank hole with escutcheon. Inside it appears to be an early home (can anyone tell me when this would have left the factory, based upon the serial number?) with a reproducer that is kind of an oddball. (I can't tell if it's an automatic or a loudspeaker, and what's with the strings? And why doesn't the wing tab say "reproducer"?) The crank isn't black and has no badge, and there's a crank mount (I think?) on the back the likes of which I have never seen. And, of course, there's no decal on the lid.

Can anyone tell me anything about this machine? Theories welcome, too.

(Oh, and I have the latches, too.)

Thanks!

You got a suitcase Home, someone installed a pull out drawer similar to a Spring Motor
Crank appears to be made up.
Reproducer looks like an automatic missing a few parts.
Love the pipe fitting crane mount on the rear...

Chuck

What Chuck said.

That Home left the factory in October 1899.

George P.

Thanks! Curious that someone would have gone to that kind of trouble just to have a drawer; it looks like they knew what they were doing, though.

Did Homes not have lid decals at this point? And does the crank look like a repro?

Zenger wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:29 pm
Did Homes not have lid decals at this point? And does the crank look like a repro?

The cabinet has been refinished and the decal most likely lost during that process.

To say that the crank is a reproduction is a stretch. I'd call it "homemade".

Not sure why I never looked inside the lid all these years, but I just did, and saw this.

And you've found a crane inside? That's luck!