Interesting old photo.

[epigramophone]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144484878255 ... %7Ciid%3A8

This old photo (not mine) is very expensive, but it does show an Indian "Transportable" in it's original environment.
It may be the camera angle, but the lid appears to be too short to cover the case.
It does not look like an HMV to me. Any ideas?

[Steve]

Interesting, as the tonearm and especially the soundbox look quite like an HMV to me ie. Exhibition.

It's available for £59 to anyone interested. I would have been but I'm not convinced it's an "original" photo.

[talking2100]

I agree, I don't believe this photo is period correct. I say that from looking at the watch the guy is wearing. When this phonograph would have been made, most people in the modern world were wearing pocket watches, and some were just starting to come around to wrist watches in WW1. I don't know enough about wrist watches to identify this one, but many of the early wrist watches were simply pocket watches hooked to wrist straps. On top of that, I would doubt that wrist watches would have been common in India at that time.

My guess, someone used an old camera in the 50's or 60's to take this.

[Steve]

I agree but I didn't mean it wasn't a period photograph. I was referring to the fact that I don't think it's even an original photo, but more like a later reprint / copy etc.

[epigramophone]

Look at the headgear and the arm of the wearer of the wristwatch. He may be British, in which case a wristwatch would not be unusual. Europeans were wearing wristwatches before 1914, and during WW1 their use by many soldiers and aviators popularised them.

[Lah Ca]

I agree that the lid looks too short in front to back depth for the machine. Strange. Perhaps an optical illusion.

Also the watch, in size and shape, looks very much like a pocket watch on a wrist strap, but then so too did early "true" wristwatches. People may have worn wrist mounted watches before the First World War, but they were not common and, apparently, were not popular in England. The practical needs for military operations in which synchronised time for troop movement and artillery barrages together with the necessity of keeping hands free almost forced their use. Well ... at least this all is the opinion of a watch expert who works with the archaeologists, forensic pathologists, and conservation technicians hoping to identify the British serviceman who owned the American-made Elgin watch that was found in a trench excavation.

A bit of a veer ... but maybe it's interesting ....

Finding the Fallen, Series 1, Episode 5

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55d4dl

[JerryVan]

I believe the lid dimensions were meant to match the cabinet dimensions, but not the top board dimensions. It appears to me, that when the lid is closed, the top board of the cabinet is meant to extend beyond the edges of the lid, just as they extend beyond the edges of the cabinet/box.

[gramophoneshane]

I believe the lid dimensions were meant to match the cabinet dimensions, but not the top board dimensions. It appears to me, that when the lid is closed, the top board of the cabinet is meant to extend beyond the edges of the lid, just as they extend beyond the edges of the cabinet/box.

I totally agree. The lid appears to be the same dimensions as the cabinet carcase.