A Fun Little Eagle Project

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phonogfp
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A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by phonogfp »

Readers of The Antique Phonograph may remember three years ago when an article on unusual Eagle Graphophones appeared. In it I included photos of an early production Eagle originally sold by the Indiana Graphophone Company, also known as Spear & Co. Some early retailers remembered the Columbia Phonograph Co. from the early 1890s and the North American Phonograph Co. Back then, Columbia was one of 30-odd subsidiary companies of North American.

By 1897, Columbia was the sole sales agent for Graphophones, but some of the older retailers had vivid memories of Columbia as one of their territorial rivals, and when it came time to sell the Eagle, they weren't too happy about Columbia's name being plastered all over it.

Spear & Co. (The Indiana Graphophone Company) removed the dataplate and the long ID plate in front, thus leaving no Columbia markings on the machine.
SpearEagle.jpg
To adhere to the terms of its contract with Columbia, the serial number was stamped in ink on the bottom of the baseboard.
SpearEagle2.jpg
I always wondered why Spear & Co. went to all the trouble to remove the Columbia markings on the machine - even substituting its own engraved & nickeled plate - but left the lid decal alone. Both examples I've seen of Spear & Co. Eagles carried conventional lid decals showing three Broadway addresses.

Well, awhile ago an Eagle lid appeared on eBay. When I checked carefully, I was surprised (and delighted) to see a Spear & Co. decal on it! :o The condition was pretty rough, but there was a cheap Buy It Now, so I pulled the trigger. Here's the SINGLE photo provided on the eBay listing by the seller, complete with bird poop:
Spearlid.JPG
Well, when the lid arrived, I learned perhaps why the seller hadn't shown the rest...
Spearbefore1.jpg
Spearbefore2.jpg
Spearbefore3.jpg
Spearbefore4.jpg
Let that be a lesson to always ask for additional photos! Heck, I would have bought it anyway...

The big piece of missing veneer was distracting, so I pulled out my old oak veneer and found a piece roughly the right size. Professionals seem to cut veneer patches at nice, neat right angles, but I'm no professional. I prefer to cut/break a piece to fit the missing area if possible. It takes longer, but I like the end result better:
lidneedingveneer.jpg
lidroughveneered.jpg
lidtrimmed.jpg
The next post will show the veeneer stained, and what the finished lid looks like this afternoon! :)

George P.

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by phonogfp »

Now the veneer needed stain. I forgot to count, but it look 12-14 coats:
lidstained.jpg
With the veneer done, all that remained was the decal. This decal, with the appended Spear & Co. decal over it, was the only reason I bought the lid. Ordinarily, if a decal is rare or unusual, I don't touch it. This was a case where the big decal was neither rare nor unusual, but the small one was. Plus the big decal was hammered. It distracted from the Spear & Co. decal, so I decided to touch it up only enough to make it compatible with the lid's overall condition. The Spear & Co. decal was left virtually untouched. Good thing too, because portions of the Spear decal have "migrated," so straight lines are no longer possible! :)

I started the decal this afternoon and just finished it. As a reminder, here's what it looked like after I cleaned it shortly after it arrived here:
lidcleaned.jpg
And here's what it looks like today:
lidfinished.jpg
Oh - - all the black paint came off too... :)
lidfinished2.jpg
I like fussy little projects like this, and now I will display the Spear & Co. lid with the Spear & Co. Eagle. I hope you enjoyed this... :)

George P.

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by gramophone78 »

Very nice George...now that's artistic licence at it's best... :lol: :lol:. But seriously, you did a great job of restoring the decal.
Congrats on a great score.

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by outune »

That's the kind of project I could get into- Nice Job, George!! I think the Indiana tag is such a neat variation. Thanks for sharing the pictures!

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by MTPhono »

I concur with the majority...excellent work George!

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by martinola »

That's a nice clean-up, George. You're not likely to run into many of those!

Martin

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by TinfoilPhono »

I'm seriously impressed with your work, and what an amazing find!!!

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by Andersun »

Very cool....

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Lucius1958
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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by Lucius1958 »

Very interesting!

They seem to have taken the trouble to make their decal blend in with the original (aside from the bleed-through)...

Bill

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Re: A Fun Little Eagle Project

Post by phonogfp »

Thanks, fellows. I'm not entirely satisfied with the decal, but I'm really trying not to "over-restore" it because the rest of the lid is admittedly a bit tatty. And there's nothing I can do about the Spear & Co. decal without making it obvious (and probably making it look worse than it does).
Lucius1958 wrote:Very interesting!

They seem to have taken the trouble to make their decal blend in with the original (aside from the bleed-through)...

Bill
A number of retailers slapped on similar decals over the large Graphophone decal. The best-known are probably the Sears examples, which have typically turned green over the years. They fit that lower right-hand area quite well:
searsdecals.jpg
Here's an earlier version where it appears the original Graphophone decal was printed blank, and the Sears information was ink-stamped into the area:
decalSears.jpg
Another well-known retailer which added its own decals was the Chicago Talking Machine Company:
decalChicago.jpg
...And of course there's also Peter Bacigalupi...

Best to all,

George P.

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