Featured Phonograph № 144 - Columbia BII Improved Sterling

[Viva-voce]

I find the BII to be probably the loveliest of the Columbia rear-mounts.
That is a beautiful machine you have!

Steven

[Django]

Did Columbia manufacture a threaded witches hat horn like the one shown? In all my years of collecting, I never saw one. Mostly I see are morning glory and wood horns for Columbia machines.
Harvey Kravitz

The machine has a non-standard dust ring and speed control, (both are gold plated, along with the reproducer). I believe that the horn began life as a cylinder machine horn, (there is a fitting that would allow it to be hung). The threaded portion matches the rest of the horn, so I think that it left the factory as a screw in horn. I think that the machine may have been a special order.

Very nice. I love Improved Sterlings, (a.k.a. BII). I think you'll find that your dust ring is just tarnished brass showing through the worn away nickle. Gold would be bright, as it never tarnishes. Just my thing, but I would strip off that black paint on the back bracket and opt for the nickle plating beneath, even it were in poor condition. Again, just my opinion there.

Gold plating can be dull, bright or anything in between. The base material has an effect on the brightness, (prep, material itself and platings that precede the gold plate). It is true that gold does not tarnish, but the base metal can migrate over long periods of time, and that can oxidize. There is no evidence of Nickel anywhere on the dust ring, (inside or out). I assumed that the ring had a dull, gold plate, but it may very well not be. The back bracket's black paint has some loss and some corrosion causing the paint to bubble in places. I would not expect a repaint to be in that condition, but I could be wrong. The machine seems to be an odd one, but it also came to me dirty and seemingly unmolested. It is hard to know if it was a factory special, received some early owner modifications or was modified by a collector.

The escutcheon also appears to be dull, gold plated. The horn most likely started out as a horn for a cylinder machine. The "conversion" looks very well done, (the end of the horn is nicely rolled in to accept a threaded section which is also brass). The inside of the horn in the threaded area oxidized and appears to be very old. It may have been a factory conversion, (or maybe done later, but it seems that it would have been quite a task unless an instrument repair person did it, which is a possibility). We can only speculate. Any proof was probably lost long ago.