Phonograph Records And Books Auction - ONLINE ONLY
Lot 2007:
Description
An exceptional collection of early telecommunications history, featuring four foundational texts on the evolution of the telegraph, telephone, and phonograph. The lot includes an 1878 first edition of George B. Prescott’s The Speaking Telephone, Talking Phonograph, and Other Novelties published by D. Appleton & Co., New York, complete with an early owner signature dated October 1878. Also featured is an 1879 authorized translation of Count Du Moncel’s The Telephone, The Microphone and The Phonograph published by Harper & Brothers, New York, retaining its historic “Village Library, Cooperstown, N.Y.” bookplate. Rounding out the group is a circa 1910 edition of Arthur Bessey Smith’s Modern American Telephony in All Its Branches by Frederick J. Drake & Co., Chicago, and Lewis Coe’s modern reference work, The Telegraph: A History of Morse’s Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States (McFarland & Company, 1993). The volumes show varying degrees of age-related wear; the Du Moncel volume exhibits spine chipping, paper loss to the spine label, and internal library stamps, while the Prescott and Smith volumes show moderate shelf wear, corner bumping, and rubbing to the cloth bindings. The modern Coe volume remains in excellent condition with crisp pages. Overall, the text blocks remain intact and stable, presenting a marvelous timeline of American technological innovation. H 5.25″, W 9.25″, D 6.25″. See photos for condition.
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