I'm sure I know who will buy this and this person is a dealer.Oedipus wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:13 pm I had this answer from the auctioneers on September 15: ' Thank you for getting in touch with us. The soundbox and the tonearm end are present, and I have included some additional photographs of them here.'
I used to own this gramophone, many years ago, and the first thing you might like to know (which the auctioneers failed to mention, even though they had my Christie's catalogue description) is that it has a Garrard Super motor -- or did when I owned it. I was never certain if EMG did the conversion, but thought probably not. That lid was clearly purpose made, but somehow it didn't suggest EMG quality.
The oddities in the photos are indeed down to careless use of Photoshop to cut out the background. Oh, and when I first saw it, the estimate, I think, was £1000 - £1500, which seemed to me ok, if a little optimistic for a home-made Mark 8. I was astonished when I saw it had gone up to £4-6000. Perhaps the owner had heard of a Mark 10B Oversize and thought his must be worth the same -- it's rarer, after all, but the rarity of an object is often matched by the rarity of people who would want it.
As you say, the cabinet is intact and not malformed in any way which the auctioneers photos inadvertently make it appear to be due to clumsy Photoshop work.
Did the horn have the dent / hole through it when you owned it or is this more recent damage?
There is a letter from Frank James inside the book but I could not decipher the name it was written to. Of course the auctioneers couldn't give me any steer as to who has placed it in the sale or any other provenance.
I did suggest it was all converted professionally to them which was greeted with some surprise as if beyond question, when they took great strides to point out to me what they considered to be the single most obvious sign of this: the carving on the front. But, as we know, this was the original Gramophone Company's handiwork and has nothing to do with EMG!