For sale is a repurposed 1920s STARR PHONOGRAPH LINGERIE CABINET. This wood cabinet and hinged top originally housed a hand crank phonograph made by the Starr Piano Company, Richmond, Indiana. The exterior of the mahogany cabinet has been refinished. The seven interior draws are not original to the cabinet. The bottom drawer is a double-depth drawer. The front of the interior drawers are sequentially lettered. The hinged top lifts and provides an additional storage compartment. The cabinet measures 35 inches tall, by 21 inches wide, and 23 inches deep. This distinctive small cabinet is truly a one-of-a-kind item.
In 1872, the Starr Piano Company was established in Richmond, Indiana. When the major phonograph patents were expiring on the disc phonographs in the mid 1910s, American businesses saw this as an opportunity to invest in a rapidly growing market. In 1915. joining with other piano makers making phonographs like Kimball and Aeolian, Starr introduced their own line of phonographs. The Starr phonograph had a slight success at first for a minor brand, due in part to winning an award at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. At the height of the Starr’s manufacturing, they made 25,000 pianos, 15,000 phonographs, and over 4 million records annually. By 1929, the Great Depression impacted the record industry greatly and Starr cancelled their line of phonographs.
