C-19 New Owner

[bilbodlego]

I purchased a C-19 S/N 152266 today at a garage sale. The person I purchased it from said that it had been in the family for as long as he remembered, but he was only 60 years old. I would love to have a better idea of the age of this beautiful piece. He said that it had a golden oak finish, it runs great. Thank you in advance for any help that can be offered.

[maroongem]

Hi Bilbodlego and welcome to the board!

As far as giving an exact date of manufacture for your C-19 unfortunately there isn't any hard data for these machines unlike the records kept by Victor. The C-19 Chippendale designation came out when the Edison Co. re-vamped their Phonograph line in 1919. Previously, the C-19 was called the C-250 and the only real difference was the method of record storage. The C-250 had two pull out drawers and the records were separated by by cardboard dividers.
The C-19 had 2 sets of 36 red leatherette covered slats one on top of the other to give you the ability to store 72 records.
It also seems that very late C-250s had these same slats and was probably during the transition that this was done.
It's nice to see that your C-19 is in oak. By far there are more in mahogany as oak was falling out of favor by this time.
Does your machine have a plate on the left of the motor-board with two buttons, one marked 10 and one 12? If so, you can at least put this machine post 1925 as those buttons were for Edison's Long Play attachment and their Records.
Something you may also want to do is look in the bottom of the cabinet between the slats with a flash light. Many times you will find the original instruction manual that got shoved to the back and sometimes the entire shipping envelope and contents and who knows what else!!

Bill

[matty]

This is really just a guess, but I think your C19 would date from about 1924- give or take a year.
As Bill stated, there are no records to accurately date these machines by their serial number, but different accessories and even the turntable felt colour can sometime be an indication of how early or late the machine was made.
I loosely dated my C19 at around 1921-22, mainly by the original owners record collection that came with the machine, and another member recently posted what is almost certainly a 1926-27 model. Your serial number falls approximately in the middle of the 2 machines..
I'm guessing your machine won't have the 10/12 buttons, will have a visible speed contol knob at the rear left of the turntable, and a light green felt on the turntable?
If your C19 still retains the original grille cloth, I'd be very interested in seeing a picture

[shellophone]

Congratulations on your C-19! A couple of things:

The paper labels on Edison Diamond Disc records are notorious for the label edges lifting. Likewise, the edges of the C-19's red leatherette trim on the dividers in the record compartment also lift. The lifting trim can snag the lifting label edges and shear the labels in two. Be careful when withdrawing the records!

Also, Wyatt Markus (aka, 'Volvoic, the Phono Guy') does an excellent job rebuilding Diamond Disc reproducers so they play and sound as new (maybe better?). His website is:

www.edisondiamonddisc.com

John M

[maroongem]

As an aside, I also do a very competent rebuild of Edison Reproducers and have been doing so for over 30 years. There are members here that can attest to the quality and loudness of my rebuilds. Oh, and I don't charge $125.00 to rebuild them!

Bill

[shellophone]

I didn't know you rebuild DD reproducers, Bill! Good to know.

John M

[bilbodlego]

Thank you so much for your help with this. The top of the turntable is covered in a green cloth material. The C-19 does not have a plate with 10/12 on it. The old owner had kept the original manual in the cabinet, so I have it. If someone can explain how to add pictures to the discussion board or my profile, I would gladly post a picture.

[bilbodlego]

I am curious about what one of these is worth. I know what I paid for it, $350.00, and that seemed very reasonable, for a one owner, still working and it came with 14 records. Again, if someone will explain to me where to post pictures I will add some tomorrow night. Thank you again.

[shellophone]

To post pictures, size the images no more than 500 pixels wide with a resolution of 72dpi in whatever image processing program you use (i.e., Photoshop) and save them in a file.

Next, go to www.imageshack.com (you can also use other upload sites such as Photobucket, but I usually use ImageShack).

Click on 'Browse' and find the files you saved, select one, and click 'Open'. That file will appear in the box. Now click 'Start Upload'.

Electrons will begin to whirr, and in a few seconds, the page will refresh and will consists of a list of image links for various applications. About halfway down the page on the left you will see a box that says 'Include Details' -- un-check that box. This will shorten all the links on the page.

Go to the section marked 'Hotlinks for Forums'. Select either link (1) or (2), copy, and paste the image link into the message box on the discussion board.

The link you pasted in will show up as an image when the message is submitted.

Repeat the process for each image.

You can type in captions by typing between the pasted-in links. I always separate each image link with at least one blank line between them.

It is not as complicated as it may sound. I just keep ImageShack open in one window and the message board open on another and work between the two.

Here's a photo of one of my Amberola V's . . . it took me way less than 30 seconds to add this image to this post:



John M

[jsandecker]

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope you enjoy it. I know I enjoy mine. Shellophone gave you some good hints for posting an image. I look forward to seeing your C-19. Having one in oak is uncommon since most of the C-19's were mahogany.

[nefaurora]

"The C-19 had 2 sets of 36 red leatherette covered slats one on top of the other to give you the ability to store 72 records."

I need someone to reproduce these slats for me.

Any takers? Any ideas?

E-mail me at: [e-mail]

Thanks, Tony K.

[nefaurora]

I picked up some original slats from George Vollmer... Thanks guys!

Tony K.