Clockmaker Henri Lioret first started making phonographs in 1893. (Please see the Lioret "Le Merveilleux" for more information on his early work). The "Modèle A" pictured here was marketed in 1899/1900 as a lower-cost model, priced at 90 Francs, which was equivalent to the price of an Edison 'suitcase' Standard in the U.S. at the same time. The mechanism is essentially the same as the more expensive No. 2, however the base and flywheel are painted black with gilt decoration rather than being nickel-plated (to reduce manufacturing cost). The Modèle A was a portable machine with a removable pleated lacquer-painted horn and a mahogany-colored wooden lid with carrying handle.

Lioret's phonographs were technologically in advance of Edison and Columbia machines of the same era, with beautifully-made clock motors and molded celluloid cylinders which were louder and finer in sound quality than brown wax cylinders made in the U.S. Julien Anton, author of "Henri Lioret, Clockmaker and Pioneer of the Phonograph," estimates that fewer than 300 were made, making the Modele A is one of the rarest of Lioret's phonographs.