The Allen Koenigsberg Phonograph Collection
Lot 3014:
Description
The talking doll took Edison 12 years to develop, 17 patents, huge sums of money and when they were released in January of 1890, Edison’s dolls were a flop; production lasted only six weeks. Children found them difficult to operate and more scary than cuddly. The recordings inside, which featured snippets of nursery rhymes, wore out quickly. Cylinders for the 10 to 20 second recordings were not interchangeable. A child would have to turn the crank at a fairly steady pace to hear the low-quality audio, hissing doll speak. Factory women were hired to shout nursery rhymes into recording funnels. The primitive wax cylinders and steel styluses produced a high-pitched, scratchy, and heavily distorted screech. Retail prices ranged from $10 to $20 depending on the clothing. In 1890, this equaled roughly two weeks of salary for an average worker. The internal mechanisms were delicate. The ring-shaped wax records warped and cracked under regular play, . Fewer than 2,500 were sold and only a handful survive toady. This example has a bisque head with human hair, blue eyes, and open mouth. The body is hollow tin to house the phonograph mechanism. The arms and legs are articulated. The clothing is original but extremely deteriorated. The mechanism has been removed from the doll for display. It is complete and turns easily but there is no crank or leather belt. There is no record on the phono mech but an original record is included. The records are even more rare than the doll. Pictured on page 17 of the Fabrizio / Paul Talking Machine Compenduium. The doll measures 22” tall. The phonograph mech measures 7” tall. From the Allen Koenigsberg collection.
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