Estate Sale Features Collection of Antique Phonographs

Music and history lovers will have no shortage of fascinating items to peruse this weekend at a Visiting Nurses estate sale in Curtis. The sale will feature an impressive collection of antique phonographs, some of them more than 100 years old — as well as film equipment, vintage oil cans, fishing gear and a horse-drawn carriage.

“It’s amazing, it really is,” said Alan Wallace, who was working for Visiting Nurses to sort and appraise the items before the sale. “The first time you come into a collection like this you’re just awestruck. It takes half a day to get started, because you’re just looking at everything and finding things and separating things. After the newness wears off, it’s time to get down to work.”

The collection belonged to Jerry Mullins, who died tragically two years ago in a collision with the Chehalis-Centralia Steam Train.

“He collected all my life,” said Shari Johnson, Mullins’ daughter. “I can’t tell you how he started. He’s just always been a collector of anything old. … He would be overjoyed about the Visiting Nurses doing this with his family. He did treasure his collection and was very proud of it.”

The Visiting Nurses Foundation works to provide home health and hospice care for patients in the area, and it runs a pair of thrift stores to raise funds for those services. According to executive director Jenny Collins, the organization is often contacted by estates. Family members want to see a loved one’s possessions get new life in the community, as well as raising money for a good cause. 

“Sometimes we just pick them up, bring it to the store and sell it there,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just not feasible, so we come out and do a couple-day sale for the family. If it’s not feasible to get it to the store, we have no problem coming out on site.”

Collins and her team have spent several days preparing for the sale at the Curtis property, which is scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday. She said finding a collection like Mullins’ is “pretty rare.”

The phonographs range from small portable models to machines the size of a small cabinet with a large horn to produce sound. According to Wallace, some of them date back more than 100 years, while many more were built in the 1920s. 

“He basically collected records, music, machines, all different kinds, all different eras. The man was just a collector,” he said. “We just do the best we can as far as pricing goes. There’s no exact science to it, it’s just whatever you would think it would be worth. There’s going to be a lot of haggling and negotiating come sale day.”

Johnson recalled fondly watching her father amass his collection. 

“My brother and I spent a lot of time in auctions, and we learned how to keep our hands down so we didn’t bid on anything my dad didn’t like,” she laughed. “Every once in awhile, he’d crank up the phonograph and we’d listen and it was fun. ... In his spare time, his joy was buying different pieces of the phonographs and fixing them up. He didn’t resell, he just collected and fixed. He had over 100 machines at one time.”

She added that she was pleased to see the collection used to benefit Visiting Nurses, as well as knowing that many of the items will find new homes in the community.

“It’s a fantastic cause, so I just appreciate the work they’ve put into this,” Johnson said. “They’re really good at what they do.”

The organization’s Facebook posts about sale, located at 1174 Boistfort Road, have drawn plenty of interest, Collins said, and she expects to see antique lovers from throughout the region. 

“Somehow word spreads and you’ve got people coming from Portland and Seattle, and it really helps to draw the crowd in,” Collins said.