A Perophone Pixie Grippa.

[gramophoneshane]

Wow, I've never seen one with the outside nickel plating in such good condition.
Surely it's been replated, or has someone finally invented a time machine?

[epigramophone]

An excellent and complete example. It will be interesting to see whether it makes the £300/£500 pre sale estimate.
If it does I think mine must have been a bargain at £100, despite needing a lot of work.

[poodling around]

A very intriguing design.

How good is the sound quality I wonder ? There are two seperate horns maybe which might be an almost unique set-up and improve sound quality ?

[gramophoneshane]

This is a video of mine playing a little wonder record, that I put on YouTube 15 years ago.

https://youtu.be/m1gpJ6RojU8

And this is somebody else's video playing an electrical recording, which probably gives a better idea of how these sound.
This one actually shows two versions of this model.
The first one playing appears to have the same motor as epigramophone has with the speed control (and brake?) at the front except a separate brake is at the rear of the motor board, and the second one has the brake on the motor board like mine, but seems to retain the same speed control at the front.
I can only assume then there are 4 different variations of Pixie Grippa with 2 or possibly 3 different motors?.

https://youtu.be/vxWm8cUPNtg

[epigramophone]

An excellent and complete example. It will be interesting to see whether it makes the £300/£500 pre sale estimate.
If it does I think mine must have been a bargain at £100, despite needing a lot of work.

The auctioneer's website says "Passed" i.e. it failed to reach it's reserve. I wonder what the highest bid, if any, was?

[gramophoneshane]

It would indeed be interesting to know.
Purely a guess on my part, but I'd imagine I could expect to get about $300-350 if I sold mine here in Australia, which converted comes to approximately £165-195.
I could be dreaming though, so perhaps the reality is they would sell for even less.
Obviously £300 was an overvaluation on the auctioneers part.

[epigramophone]

Another has just appeared on eBay, clearly showing the separate brake and speed controls fitted to some versions.
As often happens, the auxiliary horn is missing and finding one will be almost impossible.
The seller does not know that the winding handle should be stowed in the recess behind the motor board.
There is also space in the recess for a needle tin, but the HMV one included in the sale is too fat to fit.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285075770017 ... %7Ciid%3A1

[Steve]

It would indeed be interesting to know.
Purely a guess on my part, but I'd imagine I could expect to get about $300-350 if I sold mine here in Australia, which converted comes to approximately £165-195.
I could be dreaming though, so perhaps the reality is they would sell for even less.
Obviously £300 was an overvaluation on the auctioneers part.

I think you're probably about right there, Shane. I was thinking the one at auction in top condition was likely worth around £150-175, hence no sale with an over-priced reserve. They are not uncommon in the UK at least as there are at least 3 for sale as we speak and they do turn up with some surprising frequency. They obviously sold very well for what they are! It's just a shame that complete examples are less common.

FWIW I'm not convinced the example at auction was all in mint original condition. At least on my screen it appears that some of the metalwork might have been sanded back to base steel and highly buffed up to present better?

[JerryVan]

I have to ask... What does "Grippa" refer to? I understand the "Pixie" reference. Is Grippa one of those words that us Yanks left behind when we crossed the pond? (I sure wish we used "gudgeon pins" here in the U.S.!)

[epigramophone]

I have to ask... What does "Grippa" refer to? I understand the "Pixie" reference. Is Grippa one of those words that us Yanks left behind when we crossed the pond? (I sure wish we used "gudgeon pins" here in the U.S.!)

Although not in general usage today, the term "Grip" referred to a small hand held suitcase.
Perophone coined the name "Grippa" and used it on many of their portables, of which the "Pixie Grippa" was the smallest.