Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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jamiegramo
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Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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Currys started building bicycles in 1884 and opened their first bicycle shop in 1888. By the early 20th century they were selling other items including gramophones. The long established Currys name still survives today mainly as 'Currys PC World'.

In the following Currys catalogue they claim to be the largest manufacturing retailers of gramophones, amongst other things. This combined with a large number of retail depots listed makes it surprising that their gramophones now appear to be quite scarce. The only one I've seen was the table model posted on this forum. I wonder if many of these machines were unbranded? Some, are obviously, by other manufacturers and in earlier years it appears they were selling Columbia machines

The following shows the gramophones listed from this 1927 catalogue. I hope this is of interest particularly to anyone who might have one of their machines.
Attachments
currys1.jpg
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Last edited by jamiegramo on Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:49 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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another 4 pages:
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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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another 4 pages:
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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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Another 4 pages:
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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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last 2 pages:
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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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jamiegramo wrote:Currys started building bicycles in 1884 and opened their first bicycle shop in 1888. By the early 20th century they were selling other items including gramophones. The long established Currys name still survives today mainly as 'Currys PC World'.

In the following Currys catalogue they claim to be the largest manufacturing retailers of gramophones, amongst other things. This combined with a large number of retail depots listed makes it surprising that their gramophones now appear to be quite scarce. The only one I've seen was the table model posted on this forum. I wonder if many of these machines were unbranded? Some, are obviously, by other manufacturers and in earlier years it appears they were selling Columbia machines

The following shows the gramophones listed from this 1927 catalogue. I hope this is of interest particularly to anyone who might have one of their machines.
This is really very interesting indeed. Thank you for posting.

You mention "I wonder if many of these machines were unbranded?" - well I have an unbranded gramophone and it looks so similar to the "Nelson" Sideboard Model that I am convinced it must have been an earlier Curry's model like that one. (Why didn't they brand their gramophones though like they did their records I wonder ?).

When I saw the "Westmister" Pedestal. Was the phrase 'there is no veneer here' copyrighted ? If so Curry's may be able to sue 'Oak Furniture Land' :roll:

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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

Post by Orchorsol »

What a great find, many thanks for posting Jamie. Although I don't think I'd ever be interested in buying a Currys gramophone, there is a certain fasciation with the brand, I suppose partly in a way because of how improbable it is that the name still survives. I find the Currys records interesting too, although there isn't much of great quality or interest on them for me - some early ones seem to have been 'overstuck' labels on surplus stocks and/or I think they must have used Crystalate (and perhaps other firms) to press their records from generic matrices.
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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

Post by epigramophone »

Currys first records appeared in 1910. They were pressed by Edison Bell from 10.25" Bell Disc matrices, and later from 10" Winner matrices.
Currys continued to source records from Edison Bell until 1929, but also from the Invicta Record Co Ltd, owners of the Guardsman label.
The last records sold by Currys under their own name were Piccadillys overstuck with Currys labels, and these ceased when Piccadilly went bust in 1932.

Currys also sold records on their Portland and Westport labels. These were mainly deleted Winner and Imperial discs with overstuck labels.

The late Peter Curry (1927-2018) was a direct descendant of the founder and an active member of the CLPGS.

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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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epigramophone wrote:Currys first records appeared in 1910. They were pressed by Edison Bell from 10.25" Bell Disc matrices, and later from 10" Winner matrices.
Currys continued to source records from Edison Bell until 1929, but also from the Invicta Record Co Ltd, owners of the Guardsman label.
The last records sold by Currys under their own name were Piccadillys overstuck with Currys labels, and these ceased when Piccadilly went bust in 1932.

Currys also sold records on their Portland and Westport labels. These were mainly deleted Winner and Imperial discs with overstuck labels.

The late Peter Curry (1927-2018) was a direct descendant of the founder and an active member of the CLPGS.
Many thanks Roger, I was hoping you'd clarify all that!
BCN thorn needles made to the original 1920s specifications: http://www.burmesecolourneedles.com

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe4DNb ... TPE-zTAJGg?

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Re: Currys - The Cycle People - 1927 Gramophones

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I've only ever had one Currys record and that was such poor condition it was unplayable. The catalogue lists Curry Records, Winner Records, Regal Records, Bell Records and Broadcast Records. It mentions Westport Records but gives no list. Some years ago I did forward the Bell Records list to Michael Thomas for his excellent website which I can recommend (see below) and I must get round to forwarding the Curry Records list. Actually this catalogue turned up stuck in a pile of old 78's.

http://www.mgthomas.co.uk/Records/labelindex-A.htm
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Last edited by jamiegramo on Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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