The Thornward was retailed by the mail-order company Montgomery Ward of Chicago, using parts of Graphophones N and A (presumably as these were being phased out by Columbia). The price of the N was $40 in 1895 and the A $25. Columbia regularly sold off redundant machines to mail-order houses, especially Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck, as well as providing machines to other Chicago-based talking machine companies such as Standard and Busy Bee.

Montgomery Ward was America's largest mail-order house in the late 19th century, supplying the huge rural population with goods which were difficult if not impossible to obtain in remote communities. The firm is still in business, now as Chicago's premier chain of department stores rather than a low-priced mail-order business.