Those recordings Twain made of himself (he was dictating The American Claimant) were sitting by his desk in Hartford when a reporter visited him in May, 1891, just before the family closed down that house and moved. Twain played a sampling of them for the reporter and commented that such recordings were of little use to a busines or literary man, and that until the technology was perfected such recordings would "be of more benefit to posterity than to ourselves." Sadly, posterity has not yet seen the benefit of those particular recordings. Did Twain take them with him when he left Hartford? If they were left behind, then the trail gets cold quickly. Much of what was left in the Hartford home in 1891 ended up being stored in the carriage house out back, suffering the extremes of New England winters and summers, and was sold at auction in 1903 when the house was sold. Neither the phonograph player/recorder nor the wax cylinders are mentioned in the ads for that 1903 sale. The two known ads list tables, chairs, a sideboard, a big mirror, a bookcase, bed, chamber sets, crockery, carpets, and bric-a-brac --some of it mahogany and very likely including much of the furniture used in the downstairs "mahogany room" --all sold right out of the "stable." I'm afraid I have only a few of the things sold off in 1903 (I arrived a bit late), but no wax cylinders. Kevin Mac Donnell Austin TX