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The base moulding profile is the same as that on a Model 25 "hornless" machine. The corner posts appear to be reproduction Victor III units. Johnn Boehm and Bob Adams in Cleveland built up machines like this forty years ago. The decals were real, for they used the "decal side " of the cabinet as the front.

Many thanks to all of you for your input. The columns did look like those of a Vic III but this machine clearly has a 12" turntable whilst the III has a 10" So it does appear that someone went to a great deal of trouble.

Sorry to disappoint all the conspiracy theorists, but this is not a Frankenphone. It is a perfectly genuine UK Columbia of the mid 1920's which has been fitted with a later No.15 soundbox. Here is the catalogue illustration :

epigramophone wrote:Sorry to disappoint all the conspiracy theorists, but this is not a Frankenphone. It is a perfectly genuine UK Columbia of the mid 1920's which has been fitted with a later No.15 soundbox. Here is the catalogue illustration :

Well, how splendid!

So did English Columbia not adopt the later back bracket and tone arm support derived from the cabinet Grafonola models? I see that the horn elbow on this machine will fit the late te back bracket tp which I mention.

I who so often decry the suspicion of unfamiliar machines was suspicious precisely because this cabinet design was NOT unfamiliar to me.

When I was a teen-aged kid who did not know better I actually helped old Johnny Boehm by assembling cabinets for him. He was quite fond of changing around the Columbia 25 Hornless using a piece of oak plywood and columns made from screen molding. The machines looked simply awful. I came up with the idea of using reproduction Victor III corner columns and taking the boxes apart and re-assembling them with the decal side to the front. I built seven or eight of them for John, back around 1975-76. They looked exactly like the machine in the illustration, save for the back brackets, which were either standard Columbia units taken from 1912 vintage client machines or aluminum Victor style units fitted with upside-down Victrola tone arms, though I seem to recall one which was fitted with an English style bracket as the machine in the illustration. John was particularly fond of fitting the "worthless" Viva-Tonal reproducers to his machines since they sounded so much better, and would play cheap "modern" records well. Please pardon my suspicion.

John was at the time also building up machines from Victrola VI cabinets, which I thought looked simply awful. I once took him an example of a "proper" open horn modification of a Victrola ViI that I made up by disassembling the cabinet, and cutting down the base moulding and the five-piece lid so that the machine was square, rebuilding the box by adding a side from a scrapped cabinet, cutting down its height so that the motor just cleared the bottom, and fitting the corner with columns with the proportions of those used of the Victor V, made thinner to fit the lip on the base and top molding. John was delighted, saying that my creation "looked more real than most actual machines". There are ten or twelve of those abortions floating around out there, zi am sad to say. In most cases they may be recognized by their non-magnetic back brackets and Victrola Vi name plates.

I stopped the above nonsense when I was told by Bob Adams that Johnny had joined him in flogging the machines off through the Seville Antiques Auction, rather than selling them as frankly reproduction machines. I have actually been looking for an example of my handiwork from those dear dead days to keep as a curio.

In the UK a small but steady demand for open horn machines persisted throughout the 1920's. The Columbia model featured in this thread was even updated for the 1929 season as a Viva-Tonal, and in this form was the last open horn machine the company ever made. Here is my example :

Thanks, Epigramophone, for the solid information! Late production - - AND European... That makes it pretty tricky for us colonists!

George P.

Thanks for setting us straight. This is the Forum at its best. Jerry Blais

epigramophone wrote:In the UK a small but steady demand for open horn machines persisted throughout the 1920's. The Columbia model featured in this thread was even updated for the 1929 season as a Viva-Tonal, and in this form was the last open horn machine the company ever made. Here is my example :

Thanks for setting us straight on this one, Epipgramophone !


Your machine is an especially neat example, with that "plano-relex" tone-arm and the late reproducer...


Can you tell us how the speed control should work on Clay's machine ?

epigramophone wrote:In the UK a small but steady demand for open horn machines persisted throughout the 1920's. The Columbia model featured in this thread was even updated for the 1929 season as a Viva-Tonal, and in this form was the last open horn machine the company ever made. Here is my example :

Thank you for your explanation!

BTW: That is a beautiful machine that you have! I love the "European" style horns, and especially green ones. How does it sound? I'd bet it sounds quite nice.

Fran

Jerry B. wrote:Thanks for setting us straight. This is the Forum at its best. Jerry Blais

Couldn't have put it better myself. What began as a simple post quickly evolved into a lesson for us all.