Help identifying HMV floor model

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nostalgia
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Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by nostalgia »

I have carefully checked the His Master's Gramophone book 4 times in a row this evening, but am still not able to identify this floor model. There is always a mismatch with feet, door knobs, internal horn, transfers etc. It will be very interesting to read what the long time HMV collectors and experts around me in here get out of this!
-Nostalgia-
Attachments
HMV1.JPG
HMV2.JPG
HMV3.JPG
HMV4.JPG
HMV5.JPG

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Retrograde
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by Retrograde »

Maybe 160? see page 106 upper left image 4.18. Just my guess.

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Inigo
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by Inigo »

The HMV decal is the old style, prior to the conversion to narrow swan neck tonearm and no.4 soundbox. Model 160 should have been updated in 1925 to 161, and later re-styled as 162, the boxy model. At first the same old line of sizes and models was more or less maintained (increasing one digit) when updated to the new sound system. I believe the decal was then changed to the smaller square picture frame. What I don't know is how the saxophone horn model 181 was fitted within the line. That model filled with a long exponential horn the lower record storage cabinet, then reduced to two niches for a few albums at both sides of the enormous horn. And the bigger ones? 191, 201, 211 and the like? Did they also have huge saxophone horns?
The smaller table models also followed the trend, but the exponential horns installed in them did fit well into the cabinets. The odd item was the one with the huge saxophone horn... :shock:
We need an HMV Expert here...
Inigo

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nostalgia
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by nostalgia »

Retrograde: A first I also thought it was model 160, but when carefully checking the photo on page 106, one can see that the door knobs and the number of wooden boards inside the door opening of the internal horn section, do not match.

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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by OrthoFan »

edit
Last edited by OrthoFan on Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Henry
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by Henry »

Looks to be a dead ringer for the VV-100 (earlier version pictured on left in link): http://www.victor-victrola.com/100.htm

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nostalgia
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by nostalgia »

Orthofan: I was also looking at model 10 yesterday, but excluded it when the doorknobs and speed control looked very different, and model 10 in the "Book" also does not have an option to lock the lid with a key.
I now understand variations can be rather extensive in the different models.

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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by Oedipus »

I have no doubt that this is a 160, not a 10, but it is clearly an early 160, albeit with the extra horn louvre of the 10, and the metal knobs (though of course, door knobs sometimes get replaced). To be sure, take the measurements- they are given for both models in the book, and the 160 is significantly lower than the 10. The quick distinguishing feature is the bottom rail, below the doors; the 10 doesn't have one visible. The number of louvres was never given, as far as I know, in catalogue specifications so the change from three to two could have happened when the stock of three-louvre horns ran out, regardless of the model number.

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nostalgia
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Re: Help identifying HMV floor model

Post by nostalgia »

Thank you, Oedipus for your valuable input too.
If anyone have interest in possibly buying this gramophone, I am able to provide the link to the auction.
At the time of writing this, around 24 hours is left of the auction, and current bid is only 34 euro, but reserve price is not yet met. The gramophone is sold by Dreweatts Auction House in UK, and because of freight costs to continental Europe,
I will not bid on this gramophone. I anyway posted the photos here, since I felt it was interesting to reason out
what HMV model it really is.
-Nostalgia-

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