Pathé MODÈLE P "Mate"
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:35 am
Hi all,
Last Saturday I went to sell a Seraphone organette that I recently restored to an antiquaire. When I was walking crossing a flea market I saw a rusty gramophone but I was carrying the organette so I didnt stop to look it closer. 4 hours later when I was going back to my car I saw it again about to be loaded into a van because the flea market had finished.
I can swear that it called me saying "pleeeease saaave me from being lying in the sidewalk of this horrible flea market and shattering in this stuffed van...!
So I had no other option to go to the vendor and ask about it. I think that the owner saw the opportunity of making a last minute deal and told me a pretty fair price. I asked him for some minutes to inspect it while he was loading the rest of his stuff in his van and I saw that the motor was in perfect shape but the wood that holded the arm was broken. I also saw that the reproducer was in pretty poor shape, the horn was almost 100% covered in superficial rust and the felt was so dirty-rotten-infested that was almost scary to be close to it.
I made him an offer of half the price he was asking and after some negotiations he accepted.
Before arriving to the car I made an emergency stop in the parking lot to pull off the felt and throw it to a bin.
Here it is in all its rusty glory: Kids call it "Mate" (as in Cars film) because they say that its as rusty as Mate. The rest of the wood and parts are in remarquable good condition: I've already glued the wood, replaced the felt and refurbished the reproducer. It strikes me that I've found almost no reference to this Pathé model. No catalogs, no complete pictures, no idea of the year it was built... I would greatly appreciate any reference about this model.
I'm also investigating how to restore the horn. It looks like it was nickel plated and the lacquered in transparent blue-green. I've read somewhere that they were some like this but never seen one in good condition. I would like to find pictures of horns like this one but in good shape to make up my mind if I'm brave enough to stripe, de-rust, polish, nickel plate and varnish the horn because of the amount of work is tremendous and I fear that the end result may look "cheesy" by nowadays tastes. What do you think? Regards,
Pedro Martínez
Last Saturday I went to sell a Seraphone organette that I recently restored to an antiquaire. When I was walking crossing a flea market I saw a rusty gramophone but I was carrying the organette so I didnt stop to look it closer. 4 hours later when I was going back to my car I saw it again about to be loaded into a van because the flea market had finished.
I can swear that it called me saying "pleeeease saaave me from being lying in the sidewalk of this horrible flea market and shattering in this stuffed van...!
So I had no other option to go to the vendor and ask about it. I think that the owner saw the opportunity of making a last minute deal and told me a pretty fair price. I asked him for some minutes to inspect it while he was loading the rest of his stuff in his van and I saw that the motor was in perfect shape but the wood that holded the arm was broken. I also saw that the reproducer was in pretty poor shape, the horn was almost 100% covered in superficial rust and the felt was so dirty-rotten-infested that was almost scary to be close to it.
I made him an offer of half the price he was asking and after some negotiations he accepted.
Before arriving to the car I made an emergency stop in the parking lot to pull off the felt and throw it to a bin.
Here it is in all its rusty glory: Kids call it "Mate" (as in Cars film) because they say that its as rusty as Mate. The rest of the wood and parts are in remarquable good condition: I've already glued the wood, replaced the felt and refurbished the reproducer. It strikes me that I've found almost no reference to this Pathé model. No catalogs, no complete pictures, no idea of the year it was built... I would greatly appreciate any reference about this model.
I'm also investigating how to restore the horn. It looks like it was nickel plated and the lacquered in transparent blue-green. I've read somewhere that they were some like this but never seen one in good condition. I would like to find pictures of horns like this one but in good shape to make up my mind if I'm brave enough to stripe, de-rust, polish, nickel plate and varnish the horn because of the amount of work is tremendous and I fear that the end result may look "cheesy" by nowadays tastes. What do you think? Regards,
Pedro Martínez