Edison Phonograph Doll

Edison Phonograph Doll, with bisque head impressed 550 C Simon & Halbig, Germany, S&H , open mouth, weighted blue glass eyes, brown hair wig, straight-wrist jointed composition body, tin torso with pierced grill in chest and removable back door, stamped Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co. , New York and patd. dates from 1878-1889, reproduction talking doll mechanism, and later (fragile) blue taffeta costume, ht. 22 in. Note: The dolls were manufactured by the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company, formed late in 1887. The first sample dolls appeared in August 1889, but serious production started only in January 1890. The dolls were not a success commercially. Not only were the mechanisms inaccessible for repair, but there is no indication that replacement cylinders could be purchased once the original wore out. After production had ceased, Edison is cedited as saying that "the voices of the little monsters (were) exceedingly unpleasant to hear". The dolls were withdrawn from sale at the end of April 1890, the mechanisms removed and the bodies sold off. Because the example offered here does not have a hole drilled for the crank, it was presumably one of the surplus dolls sold after production had ceased. Despite their lack of commerical success, the small and simple phonograph mechanisms included all the essential features of the later and more familir Edison phonograph, and are noteworthy for containingthe first automatic record playing mechanism.