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The top is made of plywood. It is not original.

Thanks for all the replies. My opinion is it is real. Having traveled Europe many times and purchased machines in Spain I am aware that the Spanish produced some very unusual machines not unlike this one. The dating is off I agree as probably 1921+. As for spelling errors we all do that and if you are not English speaking it is sometimes difficult. Price, hmm we shall see. To get the machine here intact and very wlll packed is in the $500 range. Will request some under the "hood" photos. LH

Seller has added some additional photos of motor and underside. Looks OK to me. By the way I have a problem seeing plywood here but then to each his own. LH

here is a picture of it from the auction...

The guest writer may have been mistaking the lines of the molding around the top for plywood layers. I don't see any plywood either.

Clay

Being unfamiliar with European HMV models, I can't judge its authenticity; the only thing that seems particularly suspicious to me is the bright, un-oxidized wood inside the case.....

Bill

Lucius1958 wrote:Being unfamiliar with European HMV models, I can't judge its authenticity; the only thing that seems particularly suspicious to me is the bright, un-oxidized wood inside the case.....

Bill

I see your point. It looks like it was sawn last week.

Clay

Taken as a whole, there are too many little details that just don't look right, at least compared to American Victors. Did Victor ever put decals inside the horn, instead of on the back? The horn elbow, the locking screw and the way the elbow fits into the horn bracket differs from the American Victors. The cabinet looks too crude and homemade to be a factory cabinet. The motor, speed indicator and reproducer seem too late for an open-horn machine. The inside of the cabinet does look pretty fresh for something 90+ years old.

Perhaps maybe stop thinking about comparing to American Victor or for that matter American anything when looking st our hobby in foreign locations. The French Berliner was in several ways different than the American one. The Germans produced some really ornate cases and take a glance at the differences in European vs US cylinder boxes and disk covers. For example, the Italian Lambert cylinder box is an explosion of colors. The French have a very broad range of colors in their containers. In my mind, the European stuff is way more fancy than most American stuff. The Spanish market (cylinder and disk) attracted some really interesting ventures into unusual ways to attract buyers. This very much spilled over into machine cabinets. Bettini spent a fair amount of time in Spain and some of the Bettini items out of Spain are really wonderful. Have not seen any American cylinders in very ornate "tin" cans like the beautiful Hugens y Acosta containers from Spain but does that make them fake? LH

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