The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Members may have noticed last Friday morning this HMV model 31 briefly appeared with W & H Peacock auctioneers of Bedford to be sold the next day. The brass morning glory horn may not be correct (I can’t say with a model that may have been sold in India) and anyway it looks like an older repro but I do want a brass MG, even repro, so I was very interested in this lot and the machine a bonus. Later in the day their website replaced the one picture with more pictures of the machine but the brass horn was no longer shown on the machine in any picture.

The photos show that the base has the wrong tonearm and soundbox, replaced needle pot at the back, and, of course, the elbow was wrong. However there is no sign of re-motoring so the machine has potential with the correct tonearm not too difficult to find.

I wrote to Peacocks and asked what had happened to the horn? Why was it no longer shown on the machine? Was it included or in a separate lot? This was a waste of time as they simply replied with a standard paragraph about referring to the pictures and that any opinion that anyone gave did not represent a necessarily accurate account of condition etc... something along the lines of that... in fact no answer at all.

Anyway the next morning I received an email saying the lot had been withdrawn. So I wonder what happened to it? If it appears anywhere else I’d love to know. I saved these pictures, just as well as they have now vanished from the net.

More pictures.

I suppose it's academic as the lot was withdrawn, but it looks like the horn is on the table next to the base in your second set of pictures.
Iain

IainW wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:43 am I suppose it's academic as the lot was withdrawn, but it looks like the horn is on the table next to the base in your second set of pictures.
Iain

It is academic now but I couldn’t understand why the auctioneers removed the picture of the horn on the machine.

Because they're idiots!

It's back......

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 9001296da9

Sold for £460. So with fees around £574 total.

I can't work out if that's a bargain or not. The 31 had a cabinet which was okay but far from perfect. The tonearm was not correct, neither was the elbow or horn or soundbox.

With that said, the horn could be an incredibly rare early G & T Morning Glory in which case its possibly worth what the machine sold for on its own?

The Columbia soundbox is certainly saleable anyway.

PS - scrub that; it appears the horn is repro anyway. Its what my friend Ken Priestley would affectionately call a B.O.S. If you want to know what that stands for PM me!

Steve wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 11:48 am ... Its what my friend Ken Priestley would affectionately call a B.O.S. If you want to know what that stands for PM me!

Barely original soundmaker?

Steve wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 11:48 am I can't work out if that's a bargain or not. The 31 had a cabinet which was okay but far from perfect. The tonearm was not correct, neither was the elbow or horn or soundbox.

With that said, the horn could be an incredibly rare early G & T Morning Glory in which case its possibly worth what the machine sold for on its own?

The Columbia soundbox is certainly saleable anyway.

PS - scrub that; it appears the horn is repro anyway. Its what my friend Ken Priestley would affectionately call a B.O.S. If you want to know what that stands for PM me!

The cabinet does look a bit patchy and it was certainly more than I wanted to pay for it. The correct horn and elbow not cheap to find (well unless perhaps you live in Norway) and the brass MG I thought was an older repro. I will keep looking for a repro. if not original.