HMV194 for auction

[Steve]

£750 plus commission BUT, one thing you will not always glean from reading "From The Saleroom" in For The Record, is what condition items are in which makes a fundamental difference to price / value.

This 194 was not in great condition: the motor board was severely crazed beyond what I've ever seen before and did not match the rest of the inside. Perhaps a previous keeper had removed it for repair and left it in a workshop for years where the sun had got to it?

The winding handle was missing although the motor ran. The exterior of the cabinet could best be described as "tired", faded and quite marked in places. However the lid had been damaged and poorly refinished but then left to get scratched up again so would require stripping and refinishing. The whole cabinet would benefit from that level of restoration which is not something I'm heard saying very often. It wasn't for me anyway and neither was I the underbidder.

That might account for how the auctioneer introduced the item by saying "I've had quite a lot of interest in this. I'm not sure why".

They are really clueless and yet whilst a quiet country backwater family run bunch of "rag and bone men in suits", their company profile shouts about being expert valuers of antiques and collectibles! Yeah, OK, anything you say!

PS - I had to ask twice to get extra photos of the cabinet and the soundbox. Even though I was very specific about the sides of the cabinet, I was sent identical photos showing the grille! I never received photos of the soundbox so gave up trying.

[Steve]

What did shock me was the price achieved for the 511 which was otherwise identical to the £28 example they sold 2 weeks ago. It made £380, over 13 times the price.

The latest 511 had the same identical cabinet problem as the 194 so god only knows how bad the £28 example was. I can only imagine.

I believe from some statistical probability that all 3 machines were from the same vendor. It's very sad really but when I encountered some first generation collectors back in the 1990s, that's people who had already been collecting over 30 years back then, I saw a lot of terrible condition stuff where the early British collectors were more hoarders of cheap stuff they got for next to nothing and therefore did not look after much of it. Time and exposure to rough climates, adverse storage in damp sheds and the like, produces this condition of item.