The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 7:02 am

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:24 am

epigramophone wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:04 am

I can understand your initial doubts, as the word "Portable" on the lid transfer is misleading on a machine which is not a portable.
It is, as Steve says, perfectly genuine. Perhaps Perophone were using up lid transfers from their "Grippa" portables.

The word "Grippa" derives from "Grip", a term once used to describe a small travelling bag or suitcase.
Perophone altered it to "Grippa" as a brand name for their portables.
One of their normal size portables was the first gramophone I ever owned.

Wow !!! Is that you ?

If so, you look like the happiest young person in the whole world ! ......... and it looks like Christmas time.

Thanks very much for up-loading this photograph, it is fabulous !

Thank you also for explaining about "Grippa" and giving your assessment of this gramophone. Having looked at it again on ebay the gramophone is very small - only about 70 cms tall. So it could be described as a 'Floor Standing Table Top' one !

No, it's only ever going to be a floor standing machine. I thought they were a little higher than that though. I know a collector who has one at the bottom of his stairs and I could have sworn it was approximately kitchen worktop height which is closer to 90cms. Either way it can best be described as a "bijou" machine!

And I can vouch for that being Roger in the photo. He hasn't changed at all!

Don't tell me, you were the person who bought the gramophone as a gift for epigramophone and that is how you know !!!

Seems very low for a floor standing machine. Wouldn't a person usually have to kneel down for example to use it all of the time ? Could it have been designed for children maybe ?

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:49 am

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 7:02 am

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:24 am

Wow !!! Is that you ?

If so, you look like the happiest young person in the whole world ! ......... and it looks like Christmas time.

Thanks very much for up-loading this photograph, it is fabulous !

Thank you also for explaining about "Grippa" and giving your assessment of this gramophone. Having looked at it again on ebay the gramophone is very small - only about 70 cms tall. So it could be described as a 'Floor Standing Table Top' one !

No, it's only ever going to be a floor standing machine. I thought they were a little higher than that though. I know a collector who has one at the bottom of his stairs and I could have sworn it was approximately kitchen worktop height which is closer to 90cms. Either way it can best be described as a "bijou" machine!

And I can vouch for that being Roger in the photo. He hasn't changed at all!

Don't tell me, you were the person who bought the gramophone as a gift for epigramophone and that is how you know !!!

Seems very low for a floor standing machine. Wouldn't a person usually have to kneel down for example to use it all of the time ? Could it have been designed for children maybe ?

Well, two things to note here, firstly, it states the height at 75cms and not 70cms as you said. I wonder if this might be measured to the top of the deck when open? Anyway, we've instantly gained 5cms so who's arguing?

The second thing is that apart from being half a century too young to have been the adult who bought Roger his first machine, I can assure you it is Roger as I've seen him in real life and he still looks exactly the same........if you imagine the small boy with beard!

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 10:49 am

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:49 am

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 7:02 am

No, it's only ever going to be a floor standing machine. I thought they were a little higher than that though. I know a collector who has one at the bottom of his stairs and I could have sworn it was approximately kitchen worktop height which is closer to 90cms. Either way it can best be described as a "bijou" machine!

And I can vouch for that being Roger in the photo. He hasn't changed at all!

Don't tell me, you were the person who bought the gramophone as a gift for epigramophone and that is how you know !!!

Seems very low for a floor standing machine. Wouldn't a person usually have to kneel down for example to use it all of the time ? Could it have been designed for children maybe ?

Well, two things to note here, firstly, it states the height at 75cms and not 70cms as you said. I wonder if this might be measured to the top of the deck when open? Anyway, we've instantly gained 5cms so who's arguing?

The second thing is that apart from being half a century too young to have been the adult who bought Roger his first machine, I can assure you it is Roger as I've seen him in real life and he still looks exactly the same........if you imagine the small boy with beard!

Ha ha !

No wonder posting it was so cheap, it seems that you would need a microscope to even see this thing. It would probably fit into a matchbox. For a woodworm this would just be a brief snack. I wonder who bought this model back in the day ? Perhaps someone who had a slightly larger than usual dolls house.

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 11:21 am

Steve wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 10:49 am

poodling around wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:49 am

Don't tell me, you were the person who bought the gramophone as a gift for epigramophone and that is how you know !!!

Seems very low for a floor standing machine. Wouldn't a person usually have to kneel down for example to use it all of the time ? Could it have been designed for children maybe ?

Well, two things to note here, firstly, it states the height at 75cms and not 70cms as you said. I wonder if this might be measured to the top of the deck when open? Anyway, we've instantly gained 5cms so who's arguing?

The second thing is that apart from being half a century too young to have been the adult who bought Roger his first machine, I can assure you it is Roger as I've seen him in real life and he still looks exactly the same........if you imagine the small boy with beard!

Ha ha !

No wonder posting it was so cheap, it seems that you would need a microscope to even see this thing. It would probably fit into a matchbox. For a woodworm this would just be a brief snack. I wonder who bought this model back in the day ? Perhaps someone who had a slightly larger than usual dolls house.

Never mind that, I'm still kicking myself I didn't buy it. Initially it said £75 postage but I wasn't logged in to my account. After I'd made an offer (and I hadn't noticed the postage dropped) I logged back in and the cost had changed to £15.99! I went to hit Buy It Now but someone else got there first. Probably yourself?

Anyway I've consoled myself today with a double spring Decca 50 portable which looks as though it might have never been used.

I doubt if 'Grippa' came from the American use of 'grip' for a carrying case, which probably was not in use in this country in the 1920s. More likely to come simply from the verb to grip, or its abstract noun (as in 'Keep a grip o nit'. Or maybe even from the Old English word 'grippa'. Perhaps Mr Cullum consulted a dictionary, as I have just done...

These portable-derived bijou models were a short lived fashion, probably started by Decca with the Deccalian, made in various period styles. The Grippa came in Jacobean or William-and-Mary to my knowledge, and maybe others. The Deccalian came in either and also, most handsomely, in Chippendale style.

Oedipus wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:34 pm The Deccalian came in either and also, most handsomely, in Chippendale style.

Is the Deccalion Chippendale, the mahogany one as sold in the Roger Thorne sale?

Oedipus wrote: Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:34 pm I doubt if 'Grippa' came from the American use of 'grip' for a carrying case, which probably was not in use in this country in the 1920s. More likely to come simply from the verb to grip, or its abstract noun (as in 'Keep a grip o nit'. Or maybe even from the Old English word 'grippa'. Perhaps Mr Cullum consulted a dictionary, as I have just done...

The words grip and suitcase used to have a similar meaning. If you boarded a train in around 1900, your travel bag would have been called a grip. It was a personal bag kept with you at all times rather than entrusted to the baggage car.