Here are some pictures of my Edison:

Here is a more aerial view.

Here it is with the record cabinet open showing it's 72 record storage capacity.

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According to the sellers ID plate in the back of the machine that identifies where it was purchased, the original owner bought it around 1920 at the Pearson Piano Company in Indianapolis on Pennsylvania Street. Below is a photo of the store taken in 1928. 

Being an incurable info junkie I decided to research the company to see how long it lasted. The name plate states that it was established in 1873. It apparently prospered through out the decades, even surviving the great depression. There was however after WW II a nation wide trend to build suburban shopping malls in most large US cities and that drained most consumers away from downtown and few cities experienced it as much as Indianapolis. By the 1970's there were really only a few stores left in the downtown area. Pearson apparently was the victim of this trend as were many. It underwent several changes in owners and even tried to branch out into the furniture business in the early 1950's as Pearson Furniture and Music (phone Imperial 5401) in an attempt to survive, but abandoning that by the mid '50's. It last appears in the city directory in 1960 as the Pearson Music Corporation. Total 87 years. A recession in the very late 50's and early 60's may have been the last blow. Still, not a bad run for a music store. For those readers not familiar with Indianapolis, I might add as an unrelated epilogue, the trend away from downtown stores to the suburban malls in the 50's eventually left Indianapolis with a dead downtown by the mid 1970's. (I remember as a teenager in 1976 walking through the entire mile square in the heart of downtown on a Sunday and not encountering another human, just thousands of pigeons.) Fortunately inspired leadership by four term mayor William H. Hudnut III (1976-1992) and other business visionaries brought a vibrant renaissance (and the Indianapolis Colts!) reviving Indy from being the doughnut it was. Alas too late for Pearson Piano Company and at this point, only Stout's shoe store (founded and operated in the same building by the same family since 1886) survives from the glory days of downtown shopping.

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Just in the interest of showing how these wonderful machines can be restored without damaging the antique patina that only father time can give it, here is how it looked just before I bought it:

All I did was restore the missing wood trim, which was fortunately still with it. I replaced the rotted grill cloth and cleaned the entire surface carefully with a lemon based wood moisturizer and conditioner and then lemon oil polish. None of the wonderful "crazing" of the attic stored finished was damaged and yet the original glory was revealed again.

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Here is a cool ad for the Chippendale upright with "Lady Randolph Churchill" the mother of Winston Churchill. His glory days were nearly 20 years in the future, but he receives a minor mention in the top left hand side of the page:

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Update: 17 May 2008:

While cruising antique shops in Shelbyville Indiana, I stopped by the Grover museum in Shelby county Indiana, wondering what this little place could offer. I was amazed by their mockup of downtown Shelbyville circa 1905. Sitting just outside the "train station" was this crate of an Edison Diamond Disk phonograph. I knew I had to share it with all of you: