1905 Chicago Crazy Crane Universal Phonograph Horn Support * Uncommon & Unusual For Sale

Make sure to check out all of my sales after you look at this one. I\'m listing a little bit of everything under the sun this week, including a lot of hard to find antique radio and phonograph parts from the way back yonder days when you actually fixed something if it broke and didn\'t just throw it away and buy a new one that would also break and soon need to be replaced with another new one. Where possible, I\'ll be happy to combine to shipping on multiple purchases if it will lower your costs.Here\'s a fairly uncommon Chicago Horn Support. This universal horn crane (it can be used on almost any type of large or mid-sized cylinder phonograph) dates to the first decade of the last century and has been nicknamed the Chicago Crazy Crane because of how it looks, which is...well, not very conventional, as you can see in the first photograph.
The crane was pretty inexpensive, even by turn-of-the-century standards (I think it sold for $1.25 in 1905), and one of reasons the manufacturer was able to keep the price down was the build quality. It\'s not great, to be generous, with a lot of cheap sheet metal folded in weird ways and small hardware that should have given up the ghost a century ago but somehow has managed to stick around, although I\'ll admit that for the past few months I\'ve been using the crane with a 30\" brass horn that I\'ve got hanging from my Edison Suitcase Home, and neither the horn (nor the phonograph!) has taken a tumble yet, so maybe I\'m being too harsh.
That said, I would recommend that the crane be acquired for historical and/or display purposes only, not as a structurally sound way to support your valuable antique horn.
Overall condition is okay, as you can see, and all the parts are original except for the chain. There\'s oxidation and pitting on the various parts, but this is pretty common on original horn cranes, even the expensive ones.
Look at the pictures. They tell the story better than I can. And I would recommend
And please note the obvious, which is that the phonograph you see in the first photograph is NOT INCLUDED with the crane. It\'s pictured for the sake of demonstrating how the crane is mounted and how it works.
That\'s about it. I will carefully prep everything for shipping and pack everything carefully and properly. I\'ve been shipping fragile antique phonographs and wireless sets for years, and I know how to get them to you safely. Buyer prepays and includes shipping.