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I don't know if this will be any help, but here is a photo of the grille cloth on a Diamond Disc machine (L-19) that I am presently restoring. The cloth looks brown from the front but, when you look at the back of it, it was originally a pale olive green.

Victrolacollector wrote:I think the natural color (looks like orange maple) B-19 is a hard color to match for grill cloths. I rather had the rouge color machine, but again for the rarity, price and condition, it was good.

This is purely my opinion, in terms of color choice, but I personally enjoy a color contrast between the cabinet finish / color and the grille cloth, eg: red / brown mahogany > gold silk; golden oak ( or other "blonde" finish ) > green silk ( olive, or more towards "kelly" green).

I don't believe the fabrics were intended to be a color-match for the cabinet finish.


All that said, I will also offer that I have a couple other machines ( Brunswick in golden oak, and Silvertone in Golden Oak ) that both had a black fabric behind the grille: a slightly more "open" weave than the "tight" Edison silk, but still a plain, square weave. This also looks quite nice.


I offer these remarks mostly as ideas for "Reasonable" / "Appropriate" substitutes, if you cannot find the "correct" cloth.

Following on from De Soto Frank's post, in my opinion (although I realise some purists might throw up their hands in horror) once you replace the cloth, no matter how close it is to the original, it is obvious that it is not original (that is, the cloth would not look like it is 90 years old or so) and therefore it does not really matter if it is the same pattern or colour.

I changed the grille cloth a few years ago on a Vocalion I have, as the original cloth was ripped and rather dirty. Although my first thoughts were to try and get something close to the original, I decided to replace what was a rather unattractive brown with a russet colour. By sheer coincidence, when we moved house 18 months ago, I ended up putting the Vocalion against the feature wall in the dining room which was, wait for it, a russet colour. The effect was very pleasing.

I haven't thought about what to do with the Diamond Disc machine yet....

Wolseley,
Could you post a picture of the front of the grillcloth on the l-19, mine looks VERY similar if not the exact same which leads me to thing these l-19's might have had textured clothes. Also what's the machines secial number?
-Tom

Tpapp54321 wrote:Wolseley,
Could you post a picture of the front of the grillcloth on the l-19, mine looks VERY similar if not the exact same which leads me to thing these l-19's might have had textured clothes. Also what's the machines secial number?
-Tom

That is the only photo I have of the grille cloth at the moment. I'll take one of the front and post it, but I may not have time to do it until the weekend. The cloth does have a textured pattern.

If I'm reading it correctly, the serial number is 1044:

Had this same problem about two years ago, so I had to do some deep research!...

As far as I know,

Originally, Amberola 30's all came with gold silk "chintz" (Brownish Gold) cloth originally. I have never seen or read otherwise.

Diamond Disk players mostly have had the gold silk "chintz" (Brownish Gold) cloth originally, but some did come with the Olive Green silk cloth.. I believe those were mostly Oak DD machines.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer