Columbia AA

[Guest]

I was tasked by our local historical society to get this little lovely up and running for their opening day display this coming Saturday. It was donated by a woman in the area. I had never seen one before but the condition was lovely so it cleaned up nicely. I do a lot of gratis work for local museums in order to keep these machines in the public eye and working. I fell in love with this machine and would have been happy to have in my collection but I delivered it to the museum yesterday.

[Rodbrown]

??Beautiful!

[phonogfp]

The AA is such an appealing Graphophone.  An article on this model appeared in the June 2020 issue of the APS magazine.  Kind of an interesting story on this machine.  Here are a few additional pictures - one showing the original 10" nickel horn which was originally supplied with the AA.

 

George P.

 

 

[Tinfoilphono]

I love the AA. Beautiful design for such an inexpensive machine.

 

Here's one "in situ." 

 

 

[phonogfp]

That's a wonderful image, Rene.  The May 1902 calendar leaves no doubt to its age!

 

We included this image on page 179 of our book, Phonographica.  It looks even better here.

 

George P.

[melvind]

A Columbia AA has been on my wish list ever since the article last year. Maybe this will be the year!???

[Tinfoilphono]

The photo is a higher resolution scan than in the book (I now own the original). It is a remarkable image showing the crossover between bicycle and phonograph sales.

[Neilvanstem]

Wonderful looking machine. Great photo of the shop. Now comes to mind, again, do any of you hang your covers/lids to your machines like in this shop photo. I wish I could but no wall space so they are laying about helter skelter sort of speak. Neil

[phonogfp]

45 minutes ago, Neilvanstem said:

Now comes to mind, again, do any of you hang your covers/lids to your machines like in this shop photo. I wish I could but no wall space so they are laying about helter skelter sort of speak. Neil

 

The lids to my machines are stacked in two closets!

 

George P.

[Tinfoilphono]

It's funny -- collectors tend to balk at machines that are missing their lids, yet inevitably those same lids end up in closets, garages, or basements while the machines are displayed openly. 

 

I have tagged my lids to indicate which machines they belong to but they're scattered in various places around the house. I think I need to figure out one location where I can safely store all of them.

[Guest]

52 minutes ago, Tinfoilphono said:

It's funny -- collectors tend to balk at machines that are missing their lids, yet inevitably those same lids end up in closets, garages, or basements while the machines are displayed openly. 

 

I have tagged my lids to indicate which machines they belong to but they're scattered in various places around the house. I think I need to figure out one location where I can safely store all of them.

I have a set of shelves for lids. Except for my Triumph, they all sit nicely on the self.

[Neilvanstem]

Many of my lids stay on the machine unless it has a cygnet horn. I do have several of those though. lol

 

[AudioAntique]

What to do with lids?? Storing the lids for machines displayed without lids can be a problem.  Once they are separated from the machine, there is the risk of miss-matching them or worse yet, loosing them when  someone eventually takes over the collection.  Displaying lids along with machines can be interesting.

 

 

[phonogfp]

Eventual mismatching of lids is a relevant point.  I attach small slips of paper inside my lids with the machine's type and serial number so that a non-collector can match it to the proper machine (e.g.: "Edison Home #4090").    There are currently 10 Eagle Graphophones in my collection, so this precaution becomes even more important since various decals were used on this model. It would be easy for the uninformed to pair up an early example with a late lid, or vice-versa ("Type B Graphophone #80156").

 

George P.

[RodPickett]

16 hours ago, AudioAntique said:

What to do with lids?? Storing the lids for machines displayed without lids can be a problem.  Once they are separated from the machine, there is the risk of miss-matching them or worse yet, loosing them when  someone eventually takes over the collection.  Displaying lids along with machines can be interesting.

 

 

What a clever idea for keeping lids together, although likely doubles dusting time.  Beautiful examples of Polyphone attachments too.

[Fran604g]

On 4/23/2021 at 9:44 PM, phonogfp said:

Eventual mismatching of lids is a relevant point.  I attach small slips of paper inside my lids with the machine's type and serial number so that a non-collector can match it to the proper machine (e.g.: "Edison Home #4090").    There are currently 10 Eagle Graphophones in my collection, so this precaution becomes even more important since various decals were used on this model. It would be easy for the uninformed to pair up an early example with a late lid, or vice-versa ("Type B Graphophone #80156").

 

George P.

I attach small tags with string to the handles. You bring up a very important point.