The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Sidewinder wrote:As you can see from the electric cable, the motor is replaced so that may be the controller for an electric motor - presumably the artwork has some moving parts. Turntable also not Pathé. For reference a Pathé 6

The corner ornaments are different from the Pathé, as well. Probably the most expensive Frankenphone in the market.

This was shared on a Surrealist page I follow on Facebook

Too bad they destroyed a Pathé horn machine for a non-erotic, stupid looking concoction... it would have been better if the "arm" was articulated so one of the fingers could hold a needle and actually play a record...

The legs sticking out of the horn reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the witch with the red shoes has her legs sticking out from under the house. This monstrosity would be improved with ruby slippers and striped leggings...

I think a head sticking out of the horn would be more appropriate... but what do I know about expensive so-called "modern art"?

I found this updated picture...

Curt A wrote:Too bad they destroyed a Pathé horn machine for a non-erotic, stupid looking concoction... it would have been better if the "arm" was articulated so one of the fingers could hold a needle and actually play a record...
...

But I'm sure the only thing it would have played would have been "Dada, dada, dada-dada-ding-ding-ding."

In fairness, at the time an old open-horn machine like that would have been like a big CRT type TV now--a "can't give it away" item, but laden with associations the artist was trying to tap for other purposes. Those associations having faded with time, so has the artwork's potency. Have you ever seen the 1911 book What a Life by E.V. Lucas and George Morrow? It does much the same sort of thing with steel engravings from an old mail order catalogue sabotaged by a nonsensical, satirical "autobiography." Great fun, and I'd say it holds up better today than the artwork under discussion. I have it in a Dover reprint from the '70s or early '80s that I've worn to death; now it can be seen online here: https://scruss.com/wal/

I'm guessing that the "symbolism" of this piece reflected the attitude toward women of that period... Simple minded, frivolous women were drawn in by The Master's Voice and seduced by the music...

CarlosV wrote: The corner ornaments are different from the Pathé, as well. Probably the most expensive Frankenphone in the market.

There were as number if iterations on this model from Pathé and corner columns "evolved" Here another later variant