Sixteen Corner Column, Double Glass Sided Abomination

[bigshot]

What do you suppose you were intended to see when you peek through the windows? Was there something other than just the spring motor inside?

[Phonolair]

I find the design and style very interesting, but the construction or repair what ever it may be is terrible. Large flat head wood screws holding every piece of base molding on including the top motor board. To me that really takes away from the design.

Best Regards, Larry

[FloridaClay]

I find the design and style very interesting, but the construction or repair what ever it may be is terrible. Large flat head wood screws holding every piece of base molding on including the top motor board. To me that really takes away from the design.

Best Regards, Larry

A good many of them are poor quality repairs I'm guessing.

Clay

[Curt A]

I believe that Phono48 is correct in his identification that this is an HMV Model 33 with a fancy case... The Model 33 has a "Victrola type" tonearm, which goes into the cabinet and exits through an external horn mounted on top of the motor board. I am attaching a pic from Howard Hope's website.
http://www.gramophones.uk.com/informati ... 3_details/

According to Howard: If the 1927 Model 32 were the official last HMV horned gramophone, then the 33 was the unofficial style.
Indian-built genuine HMV 33's have cases made of teak, not normally very well finished, whereas this example sports a very handsome mahogany case, clearly made in England. It seems that the company used up spare parts in a last burst of horned machine assembly. Records at Hayes suggest a date as late as 1932 for their sale.
This is a completely original machine with a genuine- but very nicely repainted- horn with a convincing 'eggshell' finish. It plays very well indeed.

[Phono48]

Triple spring? This looks to me like a perfectly genuine HMV double spring spiral drive motor of the pre-1920 period.

Oh heck, now I know I'm losing the plot........

Barry

[neilmack]

I believe that Phono48 is correct in his identification that this is an HMV Model 33 with a fancy case... .

Those late machines wouldn't have had a motor like this, however. Late Gramophone Co. horned machines had motors such as the No. 32 (two springs, one barrel) and No. 34 (four springs, two barrels) characteristic of other 1920s gramophones. The motor here, which epigrammophone correctly identifies, must have gone out of use in the early 1920s.

So, a base with the top layout of a "conduit" machine (late '20s/early '30s); a motor of the teens or at latest early 20s, and the glass windows of an Edwardian Zonophone. Ummmm.....

[Steve]

Where are the other 4 columns? I'm only counting 12 from the photographs!

And yes, that is a double-spring motor. And no, it isn't a Spanish HMV. What has this got in common with an HMV 33? Nothing, as far as I can tell unless you solely count that model as being indicative of the last HMV horn models which were both sold in the UK and India?

The cabinet might appear to be teak so if anything it could be a colonial model BUT as others have already said the motor is an early type and not typical of a late HMV model, especially one with a large cabinet like this. The No. 34 motor would have gone into a much smaller cabinet than that. With THAT said, the Calcutta factory was not consistent either and if this was at one time "genuine" it was certainly a "grand" model and literally "anything goes" with an oddity like this.

Is it worth restoring? Solely down to the quality of the cabinet and its generous proportions I'd have to say yes, but is it genuine? I'd have to say NO to that! I suspect someone in India has tried to make a teak cabinet to "improve" an original model with less ostentatious design or maybe to use some original parts including an earlier motor. However if the cabinet is very well made, it would be fun to turn this into an HMV model not in the books!

[Steve]

If you want to remove and keep the motor I'll still gladly buy it for what you paid for it!

[Jerry B.]

I bought it for the motor. There are other motor mounting holes in the cabinet but the crank came out through the same hole. Jerry