A EMG Model 1X oak cased gramophone

[Steve]

This looks like a post WW2 gramophone with the four supporting feet altered to pre-war specificaton. I tried phoning the auctioneers four times asking them to lift the turntable to reveal the number but to no avail.

Yeah, the color difference between the feet and cabinet caught my eye.

More than a very slight difference in colour (which isn't unusual for any gramophone) the feet, stylistically, don't match the cabinet at all and haven't been fitted particularly well. I noted that straight away but then thought to myself, it's an EMG so anything goes really, especially for a "budget model" during this much later period. They might have even been swapped by an owner?

[emgcr]

Sold for a hammer price of £1,200 which puts the total cost to the buyer over £2,000 after commission and finding the correct soundbox.

[Steve]

Sold to a member of this forum, no less! Congratulations on a fine purchase.

[emgcr]

Ah ! Excellent ! It should now be possible to establish the number and therefore the approximate date. 1948 ?

[Adamp1gramophone]

I won this one - as Steve pointed out! I’m hoping to collect it tomorrow and can share further pictures here.

I will be on the lookout for the correct EMG horse shoe soundbox. If anyone has one for sale or a contact please let me know! I’ve seen the reproductions available on eBay but I’m in no rush to find an original.

[Inigo]

I'm not versed in these machines, but in my humble opinion, it caught my eye. It looks too me as one of the most beautiful I've seen among these monsters... Perhaps it looks like it carries its enormous horn with pride, not drooping at all, and in this discrete colour which to my taste goes well with that of the cabinet. I considered bidding, but the costs of transport and the possible super taxes to pay in imported goods, VAT, etc made me cringe... I've recently bought two big hmv springs and 5000 steel needles, and I had to pay 33% (90€) extra for vat and import taxes...!

[Adamp1gramophone]

Here is the Mark IX I won from the auction. The identification number is ‘885’, but I am unsure of the exact production date this relates to. It would be great if anyone could help! I did use the forum, 'EMG Register to assist dating and EMG/Expert synopsis', but the links appear to have all expired.

The gramophone came with an off-brand soundbox. I used an Expert soundbox initially, but I really needed an E.M.G. horseshoe style. To my surprise, two days after I got the E.M.G., I saw a listing on Facebook Marketplace for many gramophone-related things (soundboxes, needle tins and more). Within this listing, I saw what appeared to be an EMG horseshoe soundbox. I messaged the seller at 1 am (when I saw the listing). To my surprise, he responded instantly. The following day, I set off on a 10-hour round trip at 8 am to collect the lot. I changed the rubber on the soundbox as it was in poor condition.

An unusual turn of events! I have attached images to this post.

[Inigo]

What a nice set... I'm green!

[emgcr]

Well Adam, many congratulations---that is quite a story ! To find the correct soundbox so quickly is extraordinary---well done indeed. What an exciting journey you must have had.

Thank you for showing the number which does give a vague idea as to date of manufacture. EMGs were numbered in the nineteen-thirties and post WW2 (Experts had no numbers) but there was no distinction made between models. Also, sadly, there are no records that anyone has found so far showing what exact dates those numbers referred to so it is usually necessary to make an educated guess. I have a note on file from Frank James saying that a Mk 10a No.412 is known to have been made in 1932. I own a Mk IX which had a broken horn when I bought it revealing the newspaper from which it was made. The Daily Mirror was able to confirm the date as 8th July 1948. The stamping on the deck-board shows No.2118. We thus have definite parameters and it would seem that your No.883 may have started life in the mid nineteen-thirties ?

I am fascinated by the fact that you had an Expert Senior four-spring soundbox in stock ?!

[Inigo]

If we could think of 412 in mid-1932 and 2118 in mid-1948, and taking as valid the years 1932-1940 and 1946-1948 for full production (no production during the 1940-1946 era) we have a ratio of 1706 units in ten years, so 170.6 units per year, or 15 per month, assuming one month vacation each year. It sounds a bit incredible... But...!
Then number 883 would fall in the spring of 1935.
It's pure speculation, though...

Sorry, but I love numbers...