Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

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nostalgia
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Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by nostalgia »

I came across this gramophone ( I am not buying it) , and I want to share the photos, since we well....like to watch gramohones.
This one is a HUGE floor model, and looks very atypical to me. Interesting to see though that not all floor models from this period looked similar.
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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by epigramophone »

Regardless of the Parlophon lid transfer, this machine looks as though it was home made in someone's shed.

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by Curt A »

That might be the ugliest phonograph ever...
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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by nostalgia »

You really think it is home made? Vow, I am myself not in the position to decide if it is homemade or not. Any input on the tonearm, soundbox, speed indicator etc ? It is not Parlophon made? I agree that it is not very pretty, hehe. Homemade or not, I am sure it has entertained a lot during it's lifespan, but no...I don't want it in my sitting room. It is not pushing away any gramophone here, and not even the freezer in my storage room will lose its space, the same freezer that I back in the autumn last year was considering on sacrificing for a different Parlophon floor model.;)
But really, if it is the ugliest gramophone ever made, that would actually be a reason to get it. (joke)

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by Curt A »

Ugly is a relative term and is in the eye of the beholder... But I think it runs a close tie to an Edison H-19 Diamond Disc machine, with the Edison slightly on the positive side...
"The phonograph† is not of any commercial value."
Thomas Alva Edison - Comment to his assistant, Samuel Insull.

"No one needs a Victrola XX, a Perfected Graphophone Type G, or whatever you call those noisy things."
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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by drh »

Unfortunately, the photos don't give us a view of the machine's sides, but it looks to me as if someone cut up some old beaded paneling, painted it black, and tacked it onto the outside of an otherwise quite unexceptionable console. I'll bet if you were to remove it you'd find a "normal" finished cabinet underneath.

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

It also doesn't look so terrible to my eyes, no more than many other gramophones with intentionally outdated styles, that is.

I agree, however, that there's something weird to it. Those metal friezes make absolutely no sense, and they look as if the doors were once rotated 90 degrees on one side or another. The horn's frame looks made with todays profiles, and most of all that horizontal bar on top of the horn's mouth, besides having no reason to be there, looks no less than a piece of baseboard / skirting board.

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by nostalgia »

Yes Marco, that horizontal bar looks strange, even if I am myself not in the position to evaluate the horn's frame etc. I tend to believe though that maybe only the right door can be opened, since there is also a keyhole(?) on the right door. The needle bowls also confuse me, they do not look exactly homemade to me, and also the record storage looks rather well planned/made as I see it. One can see the needle bowl contains the screws to the motorboard. If the gramophone was not that far away from me in distance (100 km), I would actually have driven there to finally decide if this is a "normal" floor model in disguise, or if really can be have been made that way by Parlophon. There is also another aspect that I find interesting, the feet of the construction, they do not look very homemade to me, and one can also see that the transition from the front feet to the sidebars are well construced, as I see it. The Parlophon lid transfer also looks like it has been there for a long time. The gramophone is also situated far in the countryside, and not in a city area. Nothing beats solving a gramophone mystery.

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by epigramophone »

Back in the day, amateur woodworkers could buy plans from which they could construct their own gramophone cabinets. They could then be fitted with the owner's choice of mechanical components purchased from wholesalers, or companies such as Thorens who supplied much of the European gramophone trade. Such machines often contain an assortment of unrelated parts.

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Re: Parlophon (really) Grand Design floor gramophone !

Post by nostalgia »

Roger, that is interesting information for sure. I guess they then somehow also must have been able to get a lid transfer from a dealer... maybe. Out of curiosity, I have now emailed the seller and asked if he can take a photo of the motor and email me, since the screws already are removed from the motorboard, and also possibly tale a photo from the side of the cabinet. It could be interesting to see what kind of motor is inside the gramophone.

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