Many Thanks Graham! That revelation of proof that London telephone directories were used in the papier applique dispels the previous "myth" status of this particular construction circa 1932, which confirms some conversations I had, back in the late 1980s, with the younger brother of the horn form maker, Mr. Watson, working with the firm Paperdura, in a lane off Exmouth street in London, who made quite a lot of these exponential horns for EMG up to 1938. The younger Mr. Watson had recently moved into Hampton Hill, West London, where I ran an antique shop, partly specialising in old gramophones and 78rpm records, and he was drawn into the shop by my Oversize EMG, parked strategically in the shop window, feeling compelled to introduce himself and apprise me of his part in the horn manufacture. Paperdura he told me, was owned and operated by two Jewish gentlemen by the names of Mr Ranish and Mr Rennington (or Remington?). Worried by the rise of the Third Reich, they emigrated to the United States closing the business in 1938. Young Mr. Watson was apprenticed to the firm in the early 1930s and recalled travelling around central London on the flat bed of a lorry, holding onto a batch of large horns, face down, bound up in ghostly white cloth, delivering them to the EMG and EM Ginn premises. Apparently, this caused quite a stir with onlookers, who took them to be Elephant trunks!
Young Mr. Watson described how his older brother took great pride in making the wooden formers for the main straight section of the horn, in different sizes, following complex design sheets pinned up on the wall. Young Mr Watson recalled that, as well as using London telephone directories, they tore rough squares of sugar paper so that the tears were tapered to prevent edge protrusions and glued on overlapping with a water based adhesive. When enough paper had been applied (and here I can't remember whether he said it was done in stages of layers) the horn would be set aside for a period to dry. When dry enough, the horn would be removed to be held in a jig where Mr Watson senior would then apply a form of plaster called "whiting" to fettle the inner surface to conform with a thin, wooden, hand held template for the particular size horn. When dry, the horn was ready for the final papers to be applied, if any, a number of Experts were left with a white finish, or painted brown, like my Expert All Range...
Sadly, a few years later, young Mr. Watson passed away aged around 90, but not before I had introduced Francis (Frank) James to him, and he was delighted to help him with some background for his fine book, "The E.M.G. Story".
|