While on vacation in Cape Cod recently, I brought a wad of cash to my favorite used book store and went nuts. In fact, I didn’t purchase one book. Instead I walked away with a healthy stack of vintage magazines — everything from old issues of Family Circle, The Saturday Evening Post, and Better Homes and Gardens to random fashion and auto magazines. And this, the 1959 Symphonic Phonographs catalog.

Within these pages lies a bounty of vintage turntable models, all with that special late ’50s beauty. You’ve got your sturdy and fashionable portable players, like the Junior and Sophomore models seen here…

… and you’ve got hefty models that double as furniture, as was the style back then, like the Symphony.

You really can’t go wrong either way I suppose. I have no idea what one of these beauties in good working order would fetch on the market today, but I was at least willing to fork over three dollars for the catalog. If you want to see the whole set — including the original order form — you can check it out on my Flickr page.