The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have often wondered what Pathé thought was so special about this model to designate it an Art Model. Maybe in 1917 such simplicity in cabinets was quite a departure from the norm of the day. Over the years, I have found many issues of Good Furniture magazine, they're a great research source if you are studying early 20th interior designs and furnishing tastes. I guess it was like the Architectural Digest of the WW-I years and there after.

This Pathé Sheraton model was re-configured slightly for the later Actuelle mechanisms, as other have already noted. There was a thread on this board discussing that some Actuelle machines were later re-configured with a composition horn and sold as another brand (Operaphone,I think). Then again, seems Pathé still had these Sheraton cabinets on hand and after a time simply reconfigured the Actuelle cabinets back to standard issue acoustical machines. This was all discussed with pics here:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... ne#p143148

Chip,

I've owned several Pathé machines during the last 15 or so years. One was the Pathé Actuelle Model T Gothic, which is sometimes called the English Gothic or the Tudor. It was a very dark oak with some colorful painted details. If you want to buy the Pathé book, which has lots of information including details about the different motors, there is one on Ebay right now. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pathé-RECORDS- ... SwHMJYEkqV

Also, a collector in your area is an experienced collector that would be able to give you some advice is PeterF. You can find him and PM him on this site. Just do a member search.