The Allen Koenigsberg Phonograph Collection
Lot 3548:
Description
This historically significant collection consists of five primary components tracking the development of early sound recording technology and the lineage of the Lambert cylinder record enterprise. The cornerstone of this archive is a multi-page original U.S. Patent Office application packet spanning from 1904 to 1906, tracking inventor Varian M. Harris of Chicago, Illinois, and his legal representative, attorney Robert Burns, through a series of structural specifications, formal petitions, official Patent Office rejection letters citing prior art, and subsequent legal amendments. Accompanying the patent paperwork is an early 20th-century advertising graphic for the Lambert Company’s “Indestructible Phonograph Records” featuring their iconic elephant motif, professionally mounted to a foam core backing. Completing the lot are two standard certificates of death establishing an important biographical lineage: a 1990 state-certified copy for Thomas Bennett Lambert (d. 1928 in Chicago, Cook County) and a standard photocopy for Frank Lambert (d. 1937 in Manhattan, New York). Objectively, the paper elements exhibit age-appropriate wear, including edge fraying, localized creasing, general paper toning, scattered light staining, and contemporary handwritten research notations, though the typewritten and handwritten historical text remains crisp and highly legible throughout. H 14″, W 8.5″, D 0.5″. Please see photos for condition. From the Allen Koenigsberg collection.
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