This is not a bookshelf full of books. It is an antique tin box that held cookies (called biscuits) in England about 1905. Grocery stores in the past were very different.
Before 1900, grocery shopping was done at a street where farmers gathered to sell their produce. Then the markets moved into large buildings that rented space where farmers and customers bartered for food. Some farmers moved to residential suburbs and opened small grocery stores. They sold staples, like flour, sugar and tea, as well as fresh food. Clerks took the order and packed it.
The use of automobiles, starting about 1910, changed the way people shopped. In 1916, the first supermarket was built in Memphis. Customers were able to choose their items, put them in a cart and take it to a cashier. That led to branding with eye-catching packaging and the modern chains of grocery stores.
Huntley & Palmer, an English bakery, created tin boxes by the 1850s to ship and sell their boxed cookies, called biscuits, so they wouldn't get broken. They started making the figural — and now very collectible — tins in 1894 and made hundreds of different shapes.
The bookcase tin was made in 1905, and this top-quality example sold recently for $270.
Almaphone phonograph
Q: I have an antique phonograph handed down to me from my grandfather. It looks like a standing Victrola, but the tag says it's an Almaphone. I can find no information on this, except an excerpt from a 1918 book "The Music Trades," which says the Rhodes-Burford Co. was handling it at that time. I'm interested in selling it, but have no idea what it's worth. It's in working condition (the records play well), but a wood slat was replaced in the front and there are repairs to one of the legs. It's also missing the part that controls the volume.
A: The Almaphone was named for Alma Gluck (1884-1938), a popular opera singer who was also a recording star. Gluck, whose birth name was Reba Fiersohn, was born in Romania and immigrated to the United States as a child. Her first record was released by the Victor Talking Machine Co. in 1911. Her records were so popular that Victor sometimes released two or three titles a month. She was the first recording artist to sell a million copies of a song. Rhodes-Burford Co. was a furniture company with locations in several cities. There are collectors of old phonographs, but your machine is missing a part. Some people buy old phonographs just for the cabinet and repurpose it for something else, but your cabinet has had some repairs. As a vintage piece that could be repurposed, it may be worth $50 to $100.
