The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Sparky!!

I just disabled by (UBlock) ad blocker so I could read the comments posted about the video. Glad to see all of the posters agree. Now, if someone would only steer the producers of Antiques Road Show (or the "Expert Appraiser") toward this discussion!

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@Kevin-yi8fd
1 day ago
I'm afraid to say its a fake unfortunately in Europe there's loads of them. I have been collecting for years i had one only last year & i sold it for about £ 30 about $ 38 the dog is probably worth about the same as the Gramophone maybe a bit more The expert was hopeless if that was on the Antique Roadshow in the UK he would probably be fired. Oh dear, oh dear ,oh dear.
7
@RobRVA
24 minutes ago
I was at this taping can't wait for the episode to air
@collectoz
21 hours ago
Do better Antiques Roadshow…this Gramophone is a REPRODUCTION. It was made in the 1980s or 1990s. Worth very little.
6
@falvo244
17 hours ago
What an idiot!! Even a schoolboy could tell that's a modern piece of garbage, worth about $50 - $100... IF they can find another idiot to scam!!!!
3
@Jeffmartin-dt8pc
2 days ago
Sparky !!! face-blue-smiling You couldn't give that thing away, including the dog !
5
@dylan-kerry
17 hours ago
This is hilarious.
1
@danielbeller972
20 hours ago
If he's an apraiser. I'm Kim Kardashian.
4
@Zarkovision
11 hours ago
You can still buy these reproductions in India four about US$ 30. Flea markets in Europe were flooded with this stuff in the the 1990s and early 2000s. They are for decoration purpose only. For 800-1200 $ you can buy a proper gramophone.
2
@j.sorneocollection5781
20 hours ago
Made in India, reproduction! valued $50 as souvenir or display only, real gramophone collectors calls this as "CRAP-o-phone"
5
@briansullivan7398
2 days ago
Fourty years in this busness began back in the 1970's collecting and restoring gramophones. "His Masters Voice" gramophones like this were made in the 1980's abd 1990's in India. The apraiser in this case is ignorant of well known information and over his head. These fakes were created as interior design objects not intending to be thought to be an antique. When sold as an antique the person selling it is attempting to pass off and defraud the buyer, So " They Packed Up and Went Home"
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@Miss_Flapper
19 hours ago
Antiques roadshow is a joke. Before even opening the video I could tell its fake. Phonographs never had brass horns for one, and two the base is OBVIOUSLY a cheap crap o phone from India
3
@l.w.patchgarage7129
19 hours ago
Fake as fake can be.
1
@jgfiseth3332
1 day ago
So, they picked it up when it was brand new, then.
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@J.A.C.63
2 days ago
Ya, he's way off . People that know their gramophones won't touch this
4
@ericalbany
2 days ago
That's a LOT later than the 1940's - it's younger than either of them. Total piece of junk.
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@rroccanova
18 hours ago (edited)
This is SO EMBARRASSINGLY BAD! This is one of the worst appraisals in the history of this show. Tim Luke you have some explaining to do!

Here's another Antiques Roadshow clip, filmed in 2005. At least this time it's real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4iPBzCmSNc

Roadshow is a vehicle for the big auction houses. Take it as entertainment, nothing more. I know of one prominent, reputable show promoter who refused to let them tape from his show.
I can't speak to antiques I know nothing about, but every time I have seen their experts elaborate on something I know a little about, their performance has been audaciously mind-boggling.
Several years ago I watched their expert explain a mandolin music box. True mandolin boxes have several teeth tuned to the same pitch, in order to pluck them rapidly in succession. The expert, stretching for an answer, said that it was a mandolin box because it had an attachment on the comb. Yes, I know combs can have zither/mandolin attachments, but that's not the essence of a mandolin box, as the expert should have explained.
Recently I watched another expert appraise an automaton by Leopold Lambert for $10,000. I have a similar automaton in good working condition advertised for $2800. Anybody interested in saving $7200 ? I thought not.
Re the Crapophones, as best as I can recall they were available off the dock in 1985-86 for $35.

TinfoilPhono wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 1:56 pm Here's another Antiques Roadshow clip, filmed in 2005. At least this time it's real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4iPBzCmSNc

That's the British version of the show, on which the American version (for PBS) was based. They normally do a pretty accurate job, though contrary to what the appraiser stated, "this gadget predates the 78 rpm record by a good ten years," disc records were produced at the time the phonograph was manufactured, and had been for some time.

I remember that an Edison-Bell upright gramophone, circa 1930, was featured on another episode of the British show, but it was only given about a 45 second time-slot. (Valued @ one to 200 hundred pounds.) They didn't even bother to play it.

OrthoFan

Of course, unless something like an EMG/Expert, an external horn machine would have been completely out of fashion in the 1940s especially in terms of making reproductions. Originals being old fashioned and of little value.

This recent video from India, as previously posted by Sidewinder, gives the proof that no ‘appraiser’, or anyone else, could doubt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqcnx9vY7U

I love this video, especially when he uses the hammer, and force to adjust things
I seriously think every collector must have one of these creations to examine it and see it work. It's a pity to see that with a little more quality and good engineering they could produce really good machines, but these are so clumsy...
The motor off one I have is a modern copy of a Thorens portable motor, but the gears finish is so bad that it grinds itself when running...

Nat wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 1:41 pm Late Crapophone period. Or Neo Garbage, Destroy it.

Poor woman.