How Do You Identify An Antique Edison Amberola Record Player?
Thomas Alva Edison is credited with inventing the phonograph, using wax cylinders with engraved audio recordings that could be played back on a mechanical phonograph. Edison made his first phonograph in 1877 and stubbornly clung to his patented cylinders long after the flat records had usurped them in commercial popularity. In 1911, the Edison phonograph celebrated its last hurrah with a final line of phonographs, the Amberola, that like its arch rival the Victrola had an internal horn. They were made until 1929. Open the lid and look on the inside for a metal plate. Some models have metal plates on the base. If the metal plate has a Roman numeral after the “Amberola” designation, it is one of the earlier models, made between 1910 and 1914. The Amberola 1A is the first machine and comes in an ornate wooden cabinet with an internal horn made of woodgrained papiermache. The Amberola 1B was made in 1911 and appears very similar. The Amberola III (1912) has an open shelf base; the Amberola
