Are Senior Monarch Gramophones very sought after?

[SydneyAde]

estott, budsta, Steve & Starkton, thanks for your information and advice, always appreciated.

The machine is being offered for auction locally: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Gramophone-/ ... 3cff33da61

I initially thought the auction was closing at 2am, but see it's 3am AEST, which means I'll miss it, but I'll definitely be interested
to see the final sale price.

Cheers
Ade

[Steve]

Agh, I see. Well the current owners had it as a "statement piece". It's certainly making a statement but probably not what they think: "Leave me alone!" maybe?

[Marco Gilardetti]

In my opinion, the HMV brand took a great advantage of some excellent web pages that american collectors have created in the past. Some of them (The Victor Victrola page is the first that comes to my mind, but there are others) exist since nearly 20 years and are very very informative.

New hobbyists seeking information will almost surely bump into one of those websites (it also happened to me many years ago) and will grow up the opinion that it is a very desirable and collectable brand (and indeed it is). Moreover, those sites are so well structured, that they will rapidly devise what they like (which models) and what they would like to buy.

I yet have to find a website about Columbia, or Zonophone, or Whateverphone that is so well made, complete and informative as those sites about HMV.

Also, there are many craftsmen that regularly sell reproduction parts for HMV gramophones: springs, seals, isolators, etc. And they're very well made: better than the original parts in some cases. Some parts for Columbia etc. are also available, but not so readily and not so widely.

I think that all this reverberates over the market, in the US as well as in EU. I also ended up having a better knowledge of the HMV products range, much better than I know Columbia or Zonophone gramophones.

[epigramophone]

When HMV merged with UK Columbia in 1931 to form EMI, the HMV archives were carefully preserved but the Columbia archives were not.

It is only because the HMV archives are still available that reference books such as "His Master's Gramophone" have been able to be written. Most collectors would love to see a book of similar size and scope on Columbia, but the essential source material which the researchers would need no longer exists.

[Starkton]

complete and informative as those sites about HMV.

Complete?! Which sites do you have in mind?

Do we really know much about HMV's Sister Companies? For example, what do we know about The Gramophone Company (Italy) Ltd. and its delivery program?

[Starkton]

the HMV archives were carefully preserved

So carefully that nobody has access to it. Will these files ever be digitized and made available to the public?

[Marco Gilardetti]

Do we really know much about HMV's Sister Companies? For example, what do we know about The Gramophone Company (Italy) Ltd. and its delivery program?

Just as much as we know of the italian branch of Columbia, Zonophone and Pathé. That is basically nothing. But what's your point, concerning this topic? Does this change anything? Italian external horn machines are so scarce that their market is practically inexistent and virtually all of the surviving units are located at museums or private collections since 4-5 decades. Weren't we arguing why Senior Monarchs, in general, are sought after? My answer is: because there's plenty of websites with very good surveys of HMV machines, so it's very easy for everyone to understand that they're classy, highly collectable machines.

[Starkton]

For example, what do we know about The Gramophone Company (Italy) Ltd. and its delivery program?

Just as much as we know of the italian branch of Columbia, Zonophone nad Pathé. That is basically nothing.

And that's my point. While there is an EMI archive and everybody seems to believe that "HMV" is well researched, collectors everywhere know very little about what was going on outside the narrow scope of the British HMV business, although it contributed to only 15% of the corporate turnover in 1905 (30% in 1913). Typically, the "His Master's Gramophone" book is only a reference for models sold on the British market, virtually ignoring Central European and even Indian HMV models.

What does that mean? Collectors shouldn't solely rely on British centered HMV research. Yes, we "basically" know (almost) "nothing" about "Senior Monarchs" in Italy. At least I know they were sold there.

[epigramophone]

the HMV archives were carefully preserved

So carefully that nobody has access to it. Will these files ever be digitized and made available to the public?

Just because the archives are not on line does not mean that nobody has access to them.

The late Roger Thorne was a regular visitor to the EMI Archive over many years, and was given every assistance by the staff there.

Realising that he would never be in a position to publish the results of his research in book form, Roger very generously made his findings available to Brian Oakley and Christopher Proudfoot. Thus "His Master's Gramophone" was published and dedicated to Roger's memory.

[Steve]

Is the EMI archive still readily open to the public today and if so, is there realistically any information in there which hasn't already been adequately disseminated in HMG?

I agree with Starkton that it is a great shame that information on European, Asian and African HMV isn't available (apparently).

It's not the fault of the authors of HMG per se, but sadly their reference book uniquely covering the British HMV concern by default omits some of the grandest and most striking models HMV ever produced. The UK HMV operation was rather conservative in its approach to cabinet design and I'd argue that 80% of the models covered in HMG are pretty dull and uninteresting technically and aesthetically.

I'm sure most collectors would rather salivate over pictures of early Spanish and Italian "Monarchs" than the seemingly endless parade of Victrola styled table and cabinet models?