Gothic Pathé Actuelle Case help

[gramophoneshane]

I guess you're refering to me calling the machine ugly, but I'm not going to lie by saying I think it's a magnificant beautiful fantastic looking cabinet
And besides, being ugly isn't always a bad or negative thing. I own my fair share of dog ugly machines & other antiques, & being ugly is the very reason I bought and like them.
All you have to do is look at an EMG external horn machine to see ugly, yet they are very desirable machines & there's not many collectors out there that wouldn't love to own one.
You might also conceive my comment that phono companies aren't known for their historical accuracy as being negative, but I'm afraid it is merely a fact.
My comments have nothing at all to do with jealousy, and you might also note I said I myself would make the effort to look at & possibly purchase the cabinet because it would make a nice unusual machine.

[solophoneman]

Why is it when someone on this forum asks for help on something that's rare or nice and they always seem to respondvwith negativeness?
How can anyone say this piece is worth nothing? Even with the pieces missing this machine case is still rare..
I don't get that about this forum at all. Geesh be happy for someone on here for finding something like this instead of negative.

Good find here, casework looks great, if anything you can put another phonograph motor and turntable and make a machine.
Very nice find congratulations!

did you even read the whole thread? the person who started it found this gutted cabinet and was wondering whether it would be worth his while to try to buy it and restore it, so he was looking for value information. but even if he owned this cabinet and had indeed bought it, how is it that you find the responses negative?

but I do agree though that this is a fairly rare cabinet (although I've seen at least two complete versions on ebay this past year) and definitely worth something... I mean, certainly not in the neighborhood of a true art model sonora, but nevertheless.

Do you remember what those "complete" versions of this model sold for on Ebay ? That would give the poster some sort of indication, as to what the machine would ultimately go for if he was able to restore it. Assuming he could buy the empty case for a very reasonable sum.

[Edisone]

This seems to be a standard piece, used by Edison, Columbia, and Pathé as one of their 'period' models. I've also seen it as a sideboard, along with the much larger version which Edison used as their $6000 Gothic phono.

I do find it attractive, and would grab it if reasonable (well under $1000, but I'm poor and realistic) . Kurt Nauck has one, and I am trying to get him to post pictures.

(ps - Ugly? We want to talk Ugly? Credenzas are ugly. I have one, and it's a big, ugly box. Plays records superbly, but is Beauty-Challenged, to be kind! )

[estott]

(ps - Ugly? We want to talk Ugly? Credenzas are ugly. I have one, and it's a big, ugly box. Plays records superbly, but is Beauty-Challenged, to be kind! )

I've often wondered just why the public took to the design features of the standard Victrola case, particularly the curved corner posts. They're not a particularly beautiful form.

[alang]

I've often wondered just why the public took to the design features of the standard Victrola case, particularly the curved corner posts. They're not a particularly beautiful form.

That's why I still don't have an upright Victrola, my wife thinks they are ugly, the top reminds her of an urn. I will never understand why people prefer them over the console models.
BTW: I find the Credenza and in general the 8-x models way more attactive than any upright Victrola. Just shows that different people have different taste.
Andreas

[Starkton]

It is obvious that the US talking machine industry wasn't spearheading modern furniture design. Neither styles of art nouveau, art deco or bauhaus show up in the rather old fashioned sound furnitures. Or do I see this wrong?

[estott]

It is obvious that the US talking machine industry wasn't spearheading modern furniture design. Neither styles of art nouveau, art deco or bauhaus show up in the rather old fashioned sound furnitures. Or do I see this wrong?

The answer is fairly simple: these machines were designed to go with decor found in the average home. your average US home in the early 20th C. might contain only faint touches of Art Nouveau in a decorative object or two. By the era of Art Deco machines were available which reflected the stylized ornaments, and more of them with the Moderne styling which followed. I don't think Bauhaus influences really entered the average home, unless they filtered in with the simplified lines of Danish Modern- and you'll find plenty of Hi-Fi cabinets in that style.

if you want REAL Art Deco you have to look at plastic radio cabinets. People were willing to be quite adventurous on a small piece like a table top radio. A large phonograph represented a big investment and people wanted something which might not go out of style quickly.

[bbphonoguy]

As long as we've wandered off topic and into the subject of cabinets in general; I think the discussion got a lot more interesting. The gothic Pathé' case is attractive to me, but it needs to be in someone's 20's or 30's tudor to look at home. I had a friend who thought the basic Victrola curved case looked like a coffin. I don't think the old Victrola cabinets were meant to emulate Art Nouveau so much as they were meant to suggest French Roccoco, a style which was enjoying a small revival in home decoration (in a mass-produced sort of way) at the turn of the 20th century. As far as the Credenza, I think it's a very handsome machine, but it takes up way too much floor space.