In a Nutshell
Here is one of the two new 1906 B models (BG and BF) sporting the "Twentieth Century" 6 inch long 3-minute record format, a model BF named "Peerless". A very ornate quarter-sawn oak cabinet, together with a nickeled bed plate, a huge 4-spring motor, the new Lyric reproducer and the long record format make this graphophone highly collectible. It comes with a beautiful red-yellow graduated morning glory horn and crane, in perfectly working Condition

Introduction:
In 1906 - to compete with disc records - Columbia decided to increase the content of conventional 2-minute cylinders to 3 minutes by adding 50% more length to it (4-minute Amberol celluloid cylinders were not available until 1909). The 6" long cylinder is called the "Twentieth Century" format. Two players of the new B-series of graphophones, the BG and BF, were equipped with 6" cylinder mandrels, and - as all B models with the new Lyric 2-minute reproducer, that replaced the old floating reproducer. The new records didn't sell very well, but the graphophones, playing all formats, did. Here I offer a model BF "Peerless" 20th century graphophone. It has a very nice and ornate cabinet with columns, convoluted moldings, recessed panelings on all sides, and is made from expensive quarter sawed oak. As most graphophones after 1900 it has a decal showing the prizes won at various Expositions. The Grand Prix at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, the Double Grand Prize at the 1904 Expo in St. Louis, the Triple Grand Prix at the 1906 Fair in Milano and others were used by Columbia extensively as proof of the superior quality of their records and graphophones over their competitors. The upper works of the Peerless are very ornate too, with a nickeled bed plate and numerous gold-green-red flower garlands. The reproducer is a Lyric type T-3, which has no weight, but a spring tensioned stylus bar. The machine was sold in 1906 for $40.
According to old advertisements the factory supplied horn seems to have been a simple witch's hat horn - the graphophone deserves better. Here we have a third party horn, made probably by the Standard Metal Mfg. Co. in Newark, N.J.. It is a 10 petal morning glory horn with original red-yellow graduated hand-paintings, 32" length and a bell diameter of 22 1/2". Its color matches perfectly the colors of the graphophone's garlands. Included in the sale is a 3-piece music stand type graphophone horn floor crane as well as a 6" 20th century wax cylinder #85006 (see below).

Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEaSsc4MBI
ref.2: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/i/intheshadeoftheoldappletree.shtml

About my graphophone:
The quarter sawed oak cabinet is in mint condition and the two decals almost undamaged. It has an undamaged original paper tag with model and price in its lid. The nickeled bed plate is in near mint condition with almost no corrosion. The red-gold-green flower garlands on the upper works are very complete, the nickeled parts without any corrosion. The T-3 Lyric reproducer is in perfect cosmetic and technical condition with a good sapphire stylus. The 4-spring motor is perfect too and has been lubricated. The 32" morning glory horn has its original hand-painted finish with only minor touch-ups, no dents, no corrosion, the horn floor crane has an excellent nickel finish. Two 6" 20th century records number 85006 and 85022 in original boxes are part of the sale, the latter one being only for display, since it is broken. Cylinder 85006, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" was recorded in 1905 and is sung by a or the "Male Quartette", which is in fact the Columbia Male Quartet, and later - what a coincidence - became the Peerless Quartet. The cylinder has a small, sealed and almost unaudible crack (click on pict.41 or go to youtube (ref.1) to watch a youtube video). We hear the voices of tenor Henry Burr, another higher tenor Albert Campbell, bass Frank Stanley, and baritone Steve Porter. The lyrics are quoted in my youtube video's legend (copied from ref.2). If you listen carefully and read the lyrics, you will see that the 3 minute format is in fact inflated, since verse 5 and 6 of the 6 verses are sung twice.
Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

Here are the specifications:

Please have a look at prices and more radios, phonographs and gramophones  here