The Gramophone (magazine) - question

[poodling around]

Why do some of the 'year bound' copies start in January and end in December and others start in June and end in May the following year ?

Was the publication not produced for a six month period maybe ?

Some have red covers and some are black - and I wonder why this is too.

I hope this makes sense and sorry if this thread is in the wrong area.

Thank you as always.

[chunnybh]

I don't know the answer to your question but the most annoying thing for me about the "Bound" versions is that they don't have the original advertisements.

[poodling around]

I don't know the answer to your question but the most annoying thing for me about the "Bound" versions is that they don't have the original advertisements.

VERY true indeed !

It looks like someone was a little too keen to use the scissors !

[epigramophone]

When the original owners had their magazines bound, they would not have bothered to include the advertisements which quickly became obsolete.
It is a different story now when most collectors, myself included, find the advertisements the most interesting part of the content. For that reason I would not buy old magazines from which the advertisements had been removed.

I do find some of the reader's letters amusing, with their stilted language and pointless snatches of Latin.

[poodling around]

When the original owners had their magazines bound, they would not have bothered to include the advertisements which quickly became obsolete.
It is a different story now when most collectors, myself included, find the advertisements the most interesting part of the content. For that reason I would not buy old magazines from which the advertisements had been removed.

I do find some of the reader's letters amusing, with their stilted language and pointless snatches of Latin.

Yes, the letters are good - there are some interesting reviews sometimes. As you say, missing adverts are a very sad state of affairs.

[phonosandradios]

I have bound copies of the Gramophone running unbroken from June 1930 to May 1950 and they are full of adverts for radios, pick ups, radiograms, needles, record cabinets, record shops (Imhofs features every month), EMG, Davey etc. Is my set unusual in retaining all of these? The only thing that is missing from most of my volumes are the front covers of each months issue - although in my 1940's volumes these for the most part are retained.

Interestingly volume 24 (June 1946 - May 1947) that I have has all the articles at the front part of the volume and then at the back are all the covers and the ads for each month. It is the only volume I have that is organised like that. All the others contain the whole magazine as originally published.

I had thought of starting a couple of threads featuring adverts for say Expert or HMV in sequential order running through the 1930's - as personally I found them quite interesting in themselves particularly seeing how their range of product changed and evolved over a decade.

On the matter of the different bindings - I think I saw an advert in the magazine itself which referred to different types of binder for the magazines - although I would have to go back through and find it to confirm whether there was also a colour choice offered. It is quite possible that some readers made their own arrangements for binding so that could account for different colours. You could buy a copy of the index separately and then get it bound by a company of your choice with your years magazines.

[old country chemist]

Hello phonosandradios. Good to hear you have some post war "Gramophone" magazines.If you are able to go through the post war issues sometime, of the SMALL ADS. could you look out for an advertisement from a JOHN BRATLEY, in Hampshire I think,advertising soundboxes made to order. In fact Bratley, (managing director of South African airways at one time, and a big gramophone and record collector, got George Overstall to make the soundboxes, and Bratley marketed them. I cannot even remember how much George Overstall said they cost.
I saw my first bound volume of the "Gramophone" in about 1965. I cannot remember how I came to borrow it, but it was sent in the post by a kind chap whose name was David Brodetsky, and I imagined he was a collector then, but not sure.
I agree, the advertisements are very interesting, especially from small companies of lesser known machines and records.

[phonosandradios]

Hello phonosandradios. Good to hear you have some post war "Gramophone" magazines.If you are able to go through the post war issues sometime, of the SMALL ADS. could you look out for an advertisement from a JOHN BRATLEY, in Hampshire I think,advertising soundboxes made to order.

I'll certainly keep an eye open. My run from 1940 to 50 only arrived today so it will take me a little time to digest them but I willlook out for that ad.

[shoshani]

I have bound copies of the Gramophone running unbroken from June 1930 to May 1950 and they are full of adverts for radios, pick ups, radiograms, needles, record cabinets, record shops (Imhofs features every month), EMG, Davey etc. Is my set unusual in retaining all of these?

Very possibly. Many publications put the large display advertising before and after the main portion of the magazine, and those advertisements were often removed for binding.

I have a digital subscription to Gramophone, which includes access to their digital archive going back to 1923; the vast majority of 1920s and 1930s issues are presented without the adverts, and indeed without extras included in some issues like the Wilson Protractor, and a stroboscopic speed disc.

[chunnybh]

I have a digital subscription to Gramophone, which includes access to their digital archive going back to 1923; the vast majority of 1920s and 1930s issues are presented without the adverts, and indeed without extras included in some issues like the Wilson Protractor, and a stroboscopic speed disc.

I never bothered renewing my subscription as the archive has never been improved to include the ads.
When it was first launched it was also downloadable and I managed to run a decent OCR over it. It took about 10 days to do it's work but now the files are easily searchable.

Alastair, here is a list of search results for Bratley from the 1940's. There was one result from Sept 1952.

" RECORDS.—3,000 all kinds, including dance, 1900-1945, reasonable prices. Instruments: Bratley-Overstall-E.M.G. super outsize acoustic, only one made; H.M.V. 202 outsize oak re-entrant, suitable television conversion; Edison Phonograph two and four minute, with recorder. Best offers.—Appointment; write Bratley, Weyview, London Road, Liphook, Hampshire. Telephone (daytime) Victoria 2323, extension 606 (evening) Liphook 3210. Sept 1952".

A few of the ones from 1940's.

"HAND-MADE Soundboxes, latest pattern, per- feet, few at £3 each.—J. Bratley, 12a, Hill- field Park, Muswell Hill, London, N.10. June 1945"

"A SOUNDBOX for the Connoisseur—The Bratley- Overstall. Individually built and tuned, £4 each. Records bought, sold and exchanged. Soundboxes of all makes repaired. Write or telephone after 6 p.m., Kensington 7995.—John K. Bratley, 341, Chelsea.Cloisters, Sloane Avenue, London, S.W.3. March 1948"

"BRATLEY/OVERSTALL " individual soundboxes for the Connoisseur, £4; all makes repaired.—John K. Bratley. 341 Chelsea Cloisters, London, S.W.3. Kensington 7995 after 6. Dec 1948"