Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

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Curt A
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Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Curt A »

I always admired Fairy Phonograph Lamps for their quirkiness... but they are hard to find and pricey. One day a friend showed me one that a picker brought to him from Asheville, NC. I was happy for him and that stroke of luck, but never imagined finding one myself. Two weeks later, I was talking to another collector friend and mentioned this unusual find and my desire to have one. He said "I have one...", to which I said "No you don't...", since I had looked at everything in his extensive collection... He proceeded to tell me about a basket case in a box in his garage that he had for over 10 years and which was probably beyond hope... That intrigued me and after some negotiations, this is what I bought...
Attachments
Fairy_Turntable.jpg
Fairy_Lid_Top.jpg
Fairy_Lid_Bottom.jpg
Fairy_Reproducer.jpg
Fairy_Front.jpg
Fairy_Horn.jpg
Fairy_Bottom.jpg
Fairy_Motor Parts_2.jpg
Fairy_Misc Screws-Nuts-Springs.jpg
Fairy_Arms_2.jpg
"The phonograph† is not of any commercial value."
Thomas Alva Edison - Comment to his assistant, Samuel Insull.

"No one needs a Victrola XX, a Perfected Graphophone Type G, or whatever you call those noisy things."
My Wife

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Curt A
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Curt A »

Knowing absolutely nothing about restoring Fairy Phonograph Lamps, I set out to educate myself on the details of these machines. The major problems that I found were: the arm that holds the lampshade was shattered at the pot metal elbow and someone had tried to glue it back together, the wiring was in pieces and beyond use as it was old stiff and missing insulation, the motor did not work and it was a design that could not be substituted, the wood horn was delaminated and needing some TLC, no parts were labeled or otherwise identified and no manual exists to my knowledge, the original finish was a mahogany woodgrain, which had been stripped for the most part, there were bends in the brass base indicating a fall from a table, someone had etched their drivers license number on the inside of the lid and the very crude switches inside the arm looked like someone had botched a soldering job and they appeared to be extremely dangerous.

So, needless to say, I was now in unfamiliar territory with multiple issues requiring metal work, electrical, wood work and various other restoration areas that I had not previously attempted. I almost gave up, like my friend did when I realized the extent of the work that was necessary - and there were no assurances that this could be accomplished anyway...

I did all of the work myself, except for totally rewinding the motor and commutator. It took months of trial and error, as it was difficult to imagine how I would put back the elbow on the lamp arm so that it could support the weight of itself and a lampshade. The electrical switches were made of paper tubing with crude brass lever contacts inside and there are absolutely NO reproduction parts for Fairy Phonograph Lamps. I ended up repairing the arm with a tonearm elbow from a Columbia machine and I remade the switches from plastic pipe to replace the paper tube and modern rotary switches adapted to work in the arm.

After months of hard work, plenty of frustration and hundreds of dollars... this is the result...
Attachments
Fairy Phonograph Lamp Ad_PRESTO-1920_crop.png
Reproducer Front.JPG
Fairy 2.JPG
Fairy 1.JPG
"The phonograph† is not of any commercial value."
Thomas Alva Edison - Comment to his assistant, Samuel Insull.

"No one needs a Victrola XX, a Perfected Graphophone Type G, or whatever you call those noisy things."
My Wife

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Couch Potato
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Couch Potato »

Excellent! Sometimes it can be hard to look past the decay but when you finsish a project like this it makes you feel like "that was easy and so worth it" (even if very time consuming). Did you find replacement parts or were you able to bring new life to the existing potmetal ones that came with it?

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FloridaClay
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by FloridaClay »

Congratulations. It looks great.

Clay
Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume's Laws of Collecting
1. Space will expand to accommodate an infinite number of possessions, regardless of their size.
2. Shortage of finance, however dire, will never prevent the acquisition of a desired object, however improbable its cost.

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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by CDBPDX »

A splendid restoration! Congratulations!
Cliff's Vintage Music Shoppe, Castle Rock, WA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIz_IpaVrW8

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Curt A
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Curt A »

"Did you find replacement parts or were you able to bring new life to the existing potmetal ones that came with it?"

As I stated, no replacement parts are available and salvage parts are non-existent. With that in mind, I had to look at which parts were absolutely impossible to duplicate without considerable trouble and which parts may have a likely substitution.

I decided that the "acorn caps" on the arms were difficult or impossible to replace, so the cap on the broken arm had to be salvaged somehow, although it and the elbow were cast together... The elbow seemed to resemble a Columbia tonearm elbow, so once I found a broken tonearm with a good elbow, I started down the path of removing the broken elbow part from the cap by grinding it away. The earlier of these machines used brass caps and elbows, so most of them are intact... for some reason they decided to cast the later ones in pot metal.

Long story short: after grinding the remainder of the elbow off of the cap, I re-drilled the cap to accept a steel pipe fitting with barbs and attached it using JB Weld putty, which hardened like steel. The Columbia elbow was attached and the upper arm inserted into the elbow with solder and JB Weld to blend it back in to a one piece shape... I also inserted a brass pipe into the cap to avoid further problems with the rest of the pot metal.

When it was all put together, I painted the upper parts with an oiled bronze finish and left the copper pot stripped. I polished the pot to remove the green oxidation, but did not want a shiny copper finish. So when done with the cleaning, I bathed the entire piece in a copper sulfate solution, which aged it to a brownish bronze patina...

As you can see, the arm is now strong enough to support a heavy 22" Tiffany type glass shade, so the repair actually exceeded my expectations.
"The phonograph† is not of any commercial value."
Thomas Alva Edison - Comment to his assistant, Samuel Insull.

"No one needs a Victrola XX, a Perfected Graphophone Type G, or whatever you call those noisy things."
My Wife

Jerry B.
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Jerry B. »

Hi Curt,

I re-read your thread on you Fairy Lamp with interest because I'm picking up a project Fairy next week. There is currently one for sale about three hours away that is polished to the point that it hurts your eyes. I've seen original wood grained ones in oak or mahogany and others with a a muted bronze like finish. Did they every come (over) polished from the factory? Any suggestions on paint?

Thanks, Jerry Blais

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phonolamplighter
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by phonolamplighter »

Wonderful, Beautiful, Fabulous!!!!

Goes to show,

Fairy Tales can come true, it has happened to you...

All the best,
E/N
Ed and Nancy

vansteem78
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by vansteem78 »

Wow! That's it just Wow! Neil

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Curt A
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Re: Nothing is truly beyond restoration... Fairy Phono Lamp

Post by Curt A »

Jerry B. wrote:Hi Curt,

I re-read your thread on you Fairy Lamp with interest because I'm picking up a project Fairy next week. There is currently one for sale about three hours away that is polished to the point that it hurts your eyes. I've seen original wood grained ones in oak or mahogany and others with a a muted bronze like finish. Did they every come (over) polished from the factory? Any suggestions on paint?

Thanks, Jerry Blais
Jerry,
I don't like the high polished ones, either - they didn't come from the factory like that to my knowledge. My friend has one that is a verde gris green original finish, which I like, and mine was faux mahogany. I'm not a big fan of the mahogany ones and since mine was mostly stripped and the pot metal elbows were silver, I decided to paint those parts that I couldn't age with an oil rubbed bronze RustOleum paint, which turned out great.

The lamp pot is made of copper with brass fittings and if you are lucky, the elbows and connectors will be brass also. I wasn't that lucky as mine were pot metal. It is easy to age a polished one, unless they clear coated it which would have to be removed first. The copper will age with an application of copper sulfate (powder) mixed with water. It will turn a brown/bronze like an old penny. The brass parts can be aged with cold gun bluing - just rub it on with steel wool and then wipe it off and apply some spray lubricant to stop the process from going too far.

Do you intend on buying one or the other that you mentioned? The biggest issue is the motor - if it works, that is a positive. Hopefully, it will have the correct reproducer, which is odd and the decal inside the lid. Also, the hidden switches in the arms are important, along with a sound baffle and like anything else that age, complete rewiring is suggested. You can get nice vintage looking cloth covered wire with plugs on eBay. If you end up with one and need more assistance, I'll do what I can to help...

Curt
"The phonograph† is not of any commercial value."
Thomas Alva Edison - Comment to his assistant, Samuel Insull.

"No one needs a Victrola XX, a Perfected Graphophone Type G, or whatever you call those noisy things."
My Wife

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