Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

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epigramophone
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by epigramophone »

Phono48 wrote:
nostalgia wrote:Since I not yet have seen a swivelling dome pot in detail, I am myself not able to decide if this is a remaining part of this kind of needle pot.
This is the "swivelling dome" needle pot that was usually fitted to the 202 (and the 201) It has no removable inner dish like that on the 206.

Barry
I know of three versions of the Columbia 202, and here they are pictured from my collection.

The red one is pre-EMI with nickel plated fittings, No.9 soundbox, No.50 motor and "swivelling dome" needle container.
The brown one has chrome plated fittings, No.15 soundbox, HMV carrying handle, modified HMV No.69 motor and needle container with inner dish.
The black one is the final version with side wound HMV 270 series motor.

Still seeking a record album for the red one.
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nostalgia
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by nostalgia »

A very stylish and nice collection of (some also hard to find ) Columbia portables, Roger :clover: Congratulations on your latest finds !

Now I am also very excited to know if anyone have something to say about the Columbia model 116 that I posted on the last page. To me this model looks very different, and the only name that comes to my mind with my limited knowledge and background...is Pathé...?

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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by Phono48 »

I've spent some time trying to find something even vaguely "Columbia" about this machine, and have found....nothing! (apart from the trade mark transfer) I initially thought someone COULD have bought one of the excellent repro transfers and applied it to the lid in order to give an otherwise unremarkable machine a little more credibility, but then that transfer wouldn't have included the model number, so that theory goes out the window!. Hmm.....

Barry

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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by nostalgia »

Yes, Barry this is diffucult stuff, indeed.

To make the enigma even more endless, I am adding another Columbia portable that is not mine, this time a model 138. As we can see the phrase: "Viva Tonal Grafonola" is not part of the trademark transfer. I doubt very much that this is a Japan made Columbia, Nippon Columbia ( as far as I am aware) never wrote " Mod" before the model number, and also the crank does not look like the typical Japan made crank to me, when I tried to enlarge the blurry photo showing the crank.
The question of course arises, were model numbered Columbia portables also made outside USA/UK/Japan/Germany ?
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NEKTREG
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by NEKTREG »

nostalgia wrote:Yes, Barry this is diffucult stuff, indeed.

To make the enigma even more endless, I am adding another Columbia portable that is not mine, this time a model 138. As we can see the phrase: "Viva Tonal Grafonola" is not part of the trademark transfer. I doubt very much that this is a Japan made Columbia, Nippon Columbia ( as far as I am aware) never wrote " Mod" before the model number, and also the crank does not look like the typical Japan made crank to me, when I tried to enlarge the blurry photo showing the crank.
The question of course arises, were model numbered Columbia portables also made outside USA/UK/Japan/Germany ?
This Columbia is from italy. Around the mid 30s the brands La Voce Del Padrone (HMV) and Columbia build there own machines with original british, swiss and local italian parts - just like Germany did around that time. Sadly I don‘t know much about them, but they are legit.
As I know there was also a Columbia model 81,model 201, a model 140 (see picture), and for sure many Others!
Probably there were identical machines (or very similar ones) with the La Voce Del Padrone decal on them.

Surely you can find more with the mentioned Numbers and when you Search for „Columbia grammofono“
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by nostalgia »

Nektreg, thank you very much for clarifying information about the Columbia Model 138, and even adding another Columbia portable (model 140) to the thread. I did not know myself that Columbia portables also were manufactured in Italy, so your post is for sure adding very important information to the Columbia history. I will in a few days accordingly also update the Columbia Portable index thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=44585 with these Italian Columbia models.
I feel it is excellent when forum members from continental Europe are able to add this kind of information, that really are hard to find, and even very likely would be forgotten if not posted here on our forum.
So thank you again, it is much appreciated, and as we already understand...the list of Columbia models that we know less about are still steadily increasing!

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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by nostalgia »

This is an old thread, but instead of starting a new one, I thought I could post the question here, since it is Columbia related.
I found this Columbia 201 that is up for sale. Not that I am planning to buy a Columbia 201, since I have too many portables already to deal with, but the model numbering confuses me. I have never seen this model code before, LB.201. I know the Model 201, like its bigger brother the 202 was also made in blue color, but did Columbia put a letter prefix in front of the model number to show it was a colored model( here 201)?.

If this is a color code, I believe it must mean " Light Blue"? The machine does look black to me, but can maybe turn out to be blue, after cleaning, even if the record album looks very black to me... but LB, still confuses me, since the mode only was made in one blue color, as far as I know. Maybe this is normal color coding for this era of Columbia portables, but since I have searched the forum and could not find any good photos showing the model number on colored Columbia 201/202, I thought it could be worth asking the question. Myself I have only two colored Columbia portables, a red Columbia 205, and a green Columbia 9000, but they are both from the period after the merging with HMV...

When watching the inner lid photo now here on the forum, the inner lid and the sides of the lid looks to be in different colors to me, but it may be an optical illusion, and the model number will still be LB.201..
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by Inigo »

THe second photo looks blue. Maybe it's a recomposed machine from a blue model parts and a black model case?
Inigo

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Steve
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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by Steve »

Does anyone have a spare record album for a black 202?

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Re: Columbia portables..the endless enigma?

Post by Phono48 »

The LB refers to the colour, in this case light blue.

Barry

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