The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

There was a nice mahogany Edison Home model D, with the script Edison name on the cabinet, with probably a broken spring, that sold at a local auction this week. The price of the actual phonograph gets muddled a little since it sold with a nice green flowered horn, an original crane, and a box of 4M records, but at $1050 + 15% buyers fee I let someone else win it. I'm wondering about how much more valuable it might be than an identical one in an oak cabinet? What do you think?

I think you could easily double the value of a fairly common machine like a Home D with a mahogany case, as it would certainly put such a machine in the scarce/rare catagory.

I'd say you missed out on a wonderful opportunity at a very reasonable price. I don't know that there are any firm figures, but I would guess that less than one half on one percent of all Homes were built with mahogany cabinets and maybe fewer. I would estimate that just a mahogany Home with a nice original finish and good paint and striping is worth around $2000 without any horn. I might be low.
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My advice for anyone would be to call a trusted collector friend before you have to make a decision whether it's at an auction or an antique shop, etc. We all can't be experts on every part of the hobby. I've collected for over 40 years and I take my own advice. For example if I found a great advertising piece, I'd call someone more knowledgeable than myself to get an opinion on value. If someone calls me, I would never step over them to take advantage of the lead. If I had know about the mahogany Home and was already going to the same auction, I would reply that it would not be ethical for me to give you a value because I was attending the auction. If I had no prior knowledge of the auction, I would answer the question to the best of my ability and wish you luck.
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I am sorry you missed out on the opportunity. A mahogany Home does not come around very often. Jerry Blais

Actually Home machines in Mahogany cases are pretty hard to come by. While the large cabinet machines tend to be predominantly Mahogany the earlier tabletop machines were mostly Oak. Depending on condition of the case, $1050 might not be such a bad price (although I certainly couldn't afford it).

- Martin

Jerry B. wrote:I'd say you missed out on a wonderful opportunity at a very reasonable price. I don't know that there are any firm figures, but I would guess that less than one half on one percent of all Homes were built with mahogany cabinets and maybe fewer. I would estimate that just a mahogany Home with a nice original finish and good paint and striping is worth around $2000 without any horn. I might be low.
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My advice for anyone would be to call a trusted collector friend before you have to make a decision whether it's at an auction or an antique shop, etc. We all can't be experts on every part of the hobby. I've collected for over 40 years and I take my own advice. For example if I found a great advertising piece, I'd call someone more knowledgeable than myself to get an opinion on value. If someone calls me, I would never step over them to take advantage of the lead. If I had know about the mahogany Home and was already going to the same auction, I would reply that it would not be ethical for me to give you a value because I was attending the auction. If I had no prior knowledge of the auction, I would answer the question to the best of my ability and wish you luck.
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I am sorry you missed out on the opportunity. A mahogany Home does not come around very often. Jerry Blais

Thank you Jerry for your advice. I'll just chalk this up as a good learning experience and I'm sure whoever the buyer was must have known what they were doing and went home very happy.

Regardless what persons or collectors may think the value is "to them". The fact will always remain...that an item is only worth what "you" are willing to pay. You bid up to what you thought was your limit. Many go to an auction and set a limit. You have no idea what the other bidders limit was. Therefore, you have no reason to feel bad. I seen a mahogany home in near mint condition and with a 10 panel mahogany grained horn sell here for $800.00 CND five years ago. So, there are deals out there.

gramophone78 wrote:Regardless what persons or collectors may think the value is "to them". The fact will always remain...that an item is only worth what "you" are willing to pay. You bid up to what you thought was your limit. Many go to an auction and set a limit. You have no idea what the other bidders limit was. Therefore, you have no reason to feel bad. I seen a mahogany home in near mint condition and with a 10 panel mahogany grained horn sell here for $800.00 CND five years ago. So, there are deals out there.

No, I don't feel bad. It's just that in the past year I've been to a couple good sized phonograph auctions where I missed some GREAT deals on several rare machines, and now this mahogany Home, just because I didn't know what the machines were worth and the bidding got higher than I was comfortable with. I've got a good handle on values of common machines, but I need to learn more about the rarer models before I can comfortably make a strong bid on them.