The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I can hardly believe that any family wealthy and educated enough to purchase an HMV 203 (again: we're talking of the top of the tops) could later like to "ornate" the same house with it converted into a cocktail cabinet. However...

Agree: those hmmmmmmmmmm "embellishments" are usually not there.

The episode of the EMG confirms once again the idea that I have of schools after having attended them up to a master degree: rather than keep the gramophone and teach to the pupils in the most evident and straightforward way how recorded sound is reverted back into audible waves - which would make one of the most interesting lessons of applied physics - they dumped it and purchased a record player with which they put the pupils to sleep with god-only-knows-which boring "educative" serie of records.

Marco Gilardetti wrote:

The episode of the EMG confirms once again the idea that I have of schools after having attended them up to a master degree: rather than keep the gramophone and teach to the pupils in the most evident and straightforward way how recorded sound is reverted back into audible waves - which would make one of the most interesting lessons of applied physics - they dumped it and purchased a record player with which they put the pupils to sleep with god-only-knows-which boring "educative" serie of records.

Marco, it may help to explain that the EMG in question came from an infants school, where the age range of the pupils ranged from five to eleven. Not exactly the sort of environment where "applied physics" would have been relevant! The record player that replaced it was a typical "schools" model, in a wooden cabinet on castors. Very desirable, in view of the fact that it was much easier to move around to where it was wanted than the unwieldy and obsolete EMG.

Barry

The door handles and applied transfers are certainly not original. Note how the transfers are not even symmetrical but the same way around, quite unthinkable for a machine with such grand attention to details.

I wish I had that cabinet! I was lucky to find a complete HM-203 in Connecticut in September. But the cabinet has lots of loose veneer and some thick polyurethane coating all over it. Not to mention the ugliest grill cloth.

What is the right finishing for these big mahogany HMV reentrant machines? I didn't know what to do many years ago with my 194 and I used dark wax on it... It's not the original, but it looks good, and it was the only and easiest way to preserve it... I'm thinking about restoring it to its original finish...

Inigo wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:17 am What is the right finishing for these big mahogany HMV reentrant machines? I didn't know what to do many years ago with my 194 and I used dark wax on it... It's not the original, but it looks good, and it was the only and easiest way to preserve it... I'm thinking about restoring it to its original finish...

they were french polished with a coloured french polish , french polishing isn't difficult to do but needs many coats to get to the final finish , AND if it looks good why do anything else ?

I thought that HMV Mahogany cabinets of the Re-Entrant era were spray finished with cellulose lacquer.

epigramophone wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 7:16 am I thought that HMV Mahogany cabinets of the Re-Entrant era were spray finished with cellulose lacquer.

You're right. They were!

soundgen wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:32 am

Inigo wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:17 am What is the right finishing for these big mahogany HMV reentrant machines? I didn't know what to do many years ago with my 194 and I used dark wax on it... It's not the original, but it looks good, and it was the only and easiest way to preserve it... I'm thinking about restoring it to its original finish...

they were french polished with a coloured french polish , french polishing isn't difficult to do but needs many coats to get to the final finish , AND if it looks good why do anything else ?

Except that a 203 wasn't French polished. It was a spray applied nitrocellulose lacquer and I haven't met a single person or organisation yet in todays era who is capable of perfectly replicating it. I have no idea why.

If anyone knows a reliable source of refinishing I'm all ears and I have a few jobs lined up for them!

Yes, nitrocellulose lacquer, being a Luthier I'm all too used to working with nitrocellulose, but our industry seems to be one of the last which stands by nitrocellulose and uses it as a regularly, not too many others seem to regularly work with it