Pathé Rooster Restoration

Share your phonograph repair & restoration techniques here
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Curt A
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Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Curt A »

Pathé Rooster Restoration

I recently went out on a limb and bought a Pathé Rooster on eBay, despite the fact that it had considerable damage to both legs and some previous restoration attempts that failed. I always wanted one of these and had only seen a few pictures and one other damaged example in person. I figured that these are extremely scarce and I might not have another chance at one, so was willing to pay accordingly...

The eBay pictures were dark and hard to determine what extent of repair might be needed. After receiving it, cleaning it up and looking at it in good light, I discovered the full extent of what was needed. A previous owner had attempted to glue the shattered leg pieces back together, but since this is made of a plaster type material with horsehair added to the mix, it was obvious that this type of repair would not give the structural support necessary. Someone also had the brilliant idea of doing some repairs to the roosters comb, beak and wattles (the things that hang under a chickens beak) using beeswax as a modeling compound... Needless to say, that wasn't working.

After assessing the total damage, I decided that it was absolutely necessary to remove all of the previous repairs and start fresh. I used a metal pick and removed all of the beeswax repairs down to the base plaster. One leg had a fairly good old repair done by gluing the pieces back in place, so I scraped off any flaky, loose parts and re-glued them with WeldBond glue, mainly to stabilize them and keep them from additional flaking and separation.

The other leg was another story... The leg was shattered and pieces hanging by horsehair. Also, the spur on the back of that leg had broken off. Both legs had square metal rods inserted for strength, but the one leg also had loosened on the rod and would wobble and raise up when the rooster was lifted. To fix that, I removed all of the plaster bits from that leg down to the metal rod. Once I removed all of the loose parts, I coated the raw plaster with 5 minute epoxy and forced it into the leg opening around the rod in order to stabilize it. 24 hours later, the leg was solid, but looked like piranhas had chewed it off at the middle.

I then took my drill and drilled small holes in the repair areas and glued in pieces of coat hanger for anchor points on the comb, beak and missing leg spur. So far, I have used JB Weld underwater epoxy putty to rebuild each of those areas. I chose that epoxy because of the longer setting time of 15-20 minutes, which I figured would be necessary to sculpt those parts.

Next step... wait until epoxy is completely cured, sand the areas smooth and start the restoration painting...

The first 8 pictures are "BEFORE" from the eBay listing...
Attachments
Pathe 1.jpg
Pathe 2.jpg
Pathe 3.jpg
Pathe 4.jpg
Pathe 5.jpg
Pathe 6.jpg
Pathe 7.jpg
Pathe 8.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."
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Curt A
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Curt A »

Repair progress... Before and After...
Attachments
Comb.JPG
Beak & Wattles.JPG
Comb & Beak Repair.JPG
Beak & Wattles Repair.JPG
Rooster Leg.JPG
Rooster Leg 2.JPG
Rooster Leg 4.JPG
Rooster Leg 5.JPG
Leg & Spur Repair.JPG
Leg & Spur Repair 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

melvind
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by melvind »

I am really glad to see you took this on. I really was tempted to bid on it but decided it would probably just sit around in its sad state forever if I bought it. I look forward to your restoration. Congratulations on finding one of the rarest advertising pieces around. Good luck!

Dan

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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Phonofreak »

Great job, and looking fantastic. Glad you got it. It's worth every penny that you paid. Keep us posted on your progress.
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alang
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by alang »

That is a beautiful and scarce advertising piece. Thanks for sharing the restoration process.

Good luck
Andreas

Jerry B.
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Jerry B. »

That's an ambitious project on a very rare piece. It's obvious that is has found a new good home. Jerry B.

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Mlund2020
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Mlund2020 »

Great job Curt. I can't wait to see it when you are done. I'm so glad you got it and are restoring it back to it's former glory. I thought briefly about bidding on it when I saw it listed on eBay, but with it's condition issues I held off on bidding.
Last edited by Mlund2020 on Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Curt A
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by Curt A »

Mike,
I debated long and hard about purchasing this considering the damage, but I believed that I could do the restoration work myself and that cemented my decision. As soon as it's finished, I plan to bring it by...
"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

dutchman
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Re: Pathé Rooster Restoration

Post by dutchman »

Nice. Very few people have brought a chicken back to life :)

Bill K

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