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I'd recommend finding a more appropriate tonearm. Since it's not original and is too short, it will put excessive wear on your records. The Perkins Phonograph Company of Chicago was connected to Henry Saal, president of the H. G. Saal Company. They originally manufactured micrometer gauges, dies, and precision instruments before becoming a general metals manufacturer. By the 1910s, the phonograph market had exploded, and many companies wanted their own machines. The problem though, making one could be expensive, especially the metal parts, like the motor. Saal mass-produced generic phonograph motors for companies assembling their own machines. One of Saal’s biggest customers was Sears, for whom they supplied motors used in the Silvertone, Sears’ in-house phonograph brand. By the early 1920s, the market started to cool off due to oversaturation and the rise of early radio. Sears’ sales dropped, and they began selling off overstocked Silvertones to be rebranded, notably by the Beckwith Piano & Organ Company (a Sears supplier) under their Crown brand. Sears' orders from Saal likely dropped. Saal used the Perkins Phonograph Company to assemble their own machines, helping to dispose of overstock parts while also advertising them. Yours is a console model dating between 1923–1926, but without the original tonearm, it’s hard to narrow it down much further.

This appeared last week at a local estate sale. The asking price was $2900 OBO. I believe it finally went for $2300. It was a package deal including the Fireside sitting on top. Along with four boxes of cylinders. I only investigated the top box. I pulled out Blue Amberol #5044 with original lid. “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby”. After that I decided to not look any further. This was way too much for me to deal with. And also like others here, have run out of room! But I did come home with a neglected Edison Triumph #E plus a “Little Orphan Annie” lamp shade. The original owner was a prominent local. Involved with the fire department and other endeavors. It is nice to see stuff like this now and then. I really do think there’s still many interesting phonograph finds still out there.

Bettini reportedly recorded Mark Twain, but evidently those recordings were never offered by him commercially. I've not seen Mark Twain records in Bettini catalogs, and I've never heard of any surviving recordings of him. Finding one would certainly be major news! George P.

I have been doing some research on Mark Twain and understand that a number of brown wax cylinders were recorded by the author. Has anyone ever seen cylinders such as these? Thank you, Art Heller

My wife and I both really like her singing, even if she did not. This one is missing her usual, "That's all", at the end. 🙂

Great machine! Terrific sound - a very nice record too... !

Muchas gracias por responder, alguien conoce en todo caso, alguna publicación que trate sobre este tema?

Your restorer did a great job as the sound is as good as it gets!

The 1910 Hiller is an entirely different, and much later mechanism than would have resulted from the 1878 agreement between Edison and Ansonia. As far as is known for certain, nothing came of the Edison/Ansonia agreement. Back in the mid-1990s, there were claims that the Lambert machine carrying a recording in lead was a prototype built at Edison's behest, because the recording contained the words, "One o'clock," "Two o'clock," "Three o'clock..." In the end, it was debatable whether the existing machine was an 1878 model with recording, or the 1896 duplicate Lambert testified to have made after destroying the original. In any event, any connection between Lambert and Ansonia was not verifiable. George P.

I saw this on E bay it’s not an Ansonia but a Hiller, it has some nice pictures of the mechanism. Probably the same . Dan

Excellent. The clunk you heard may suggest that in the future, your springs may need to be cleaned and regreased. Happy that it's working for you.

To all, thank you. I appreciate your expertise and advice. Apologies for late response. 1. I wound up the crank a lot more, until it made a clunk. I used one of our 1920's records. I changed the needle. The player works! In the future, we will only use the 20's records. We have several years of 78's, from 1920's to 1950's. Here's 2 photos: the stack of records, some of the 1920's. And another video. Thanks. 20260314_100119.mp4

Annette Hanshaw was born in 1901 and died in 1985. In this June 3rd 1933 recording she sings that her father was Irish and her mother was English. There are several interesting biographies of Annette Hanshaw on the web so I won't go into detail here. "Sweetheart Darlin'" was issued on Melotone and other ARC labels. Oddly, she never liked her recordings and this one was one of three that she never wanted to be played on the radio. Here it is, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. Annette Hanshaw - Sweetheart Darlin' .wav

Kansas City Stomps - Jelly Roll Morton:1923

Years late I'm afraid but have you seen this?

What an ingenious conversion of an Edison cylinder producer to a disc playing version! Totally bogus, but totally clever at the same time! Yes, the motor and turnatble appears to have some authenticity, but that may be about it.

I wonder about this machine... the horn is obviously from a cylinder phonograph, but the motor and turntable look authentic enough?

Los empresarios Daniel Somers y Henry Davies de la Ansonia Clock Co. firmaron un acuerdo con Edison para la explotación de un reloj parlante que anunciara las horas. Alguien podría proporcionar alguna imagen de estos "relojes parlantes" Entrepreneurs Daniel Somers and Henry Davies of Ansonia Clock Co. signed an agreement with Edison for the exploitation of a talking clock announcing the hours. Someone could provide some picture of these "talking clocks."

I hope this is not going to be another case of an OP asking a question, receiving some earnest attempts at help, and disappearing. Let us know how it's going Bob1. 🙂

It looks like someone fabricated a wooden circle to elevate the tone arm to the proper height. The tonearm looks as if it came from a later style portable phonograph. It was probably used to replace a broken pot metal universal type arm. I do know Sears & Wards offered replacement tonearms in their prewar catalogs. But this is too short for one of those. There were instructions on what to measure from the spindle back to the “horn hole”. This tonearm was probably done in the postwar period, by using what was readily available. “Waste not want not” The great people on this forum can guide you to reputable parts supplier.

#487281 This puts it around 1919. Still a nice example of a VV-X. With the fatter tonearm it can belt out the tunes from the #4 sound box!

I didn’t know we were going to scrutinize my machine? Serial number: 487281

I thought as much. My copy of the data book is upstairs and I failed to check it. If OP would post the serial number we could pin it down more precisely.