Horn gramophones to identify and discuss

[nostalgia]

Roger, Inigo..yes, this soundbox need new gaskets. I seem to do everything to avoid rebuilding a soundbox. I have decided to keep this machine, at least for now, even if I have no idea where I will put it. I have earlier bought gaskets for Exhibition, but still have not used them for some of my poor Exhibition soundboxes. I need sit down, look and read about how soundboxes work, understand all the details, before starting this work.
The diaphragm is cracked, even if it is not destroyed, so it is not just a flash from the camera, so I will also need a new diaphragm. Instead of working on a soundbox I seem to constantly throw myself over a HMV portable, or a project saving a(nother) machine.
I think all the parts on this machine are genuine, nothing seems to have been changed, also the parts are quite unique, they don't look anything like the parts we see on other German/ Swiss machines we often see here on the forum.
Thanks for all advice, and yes...I know I live in gramophone dreamland Inigo...but sometimes it now (again) in my sitting room, kitchen..and bedroom,,, start to look like a nightmare, when I look around me, despite having rented two small storage lockers.. It did not help much concerning the space around me, of course , that I, admittedly, also started to collect some old Norwegian (Tandberg) radios and receivers starting this summer.

[Paolo_MK68]

Good day all,

here's the one that started my fascination about acoustic gramophone when I was a child in the seventies.

It belonged to my grandfather and the only certain thing I know about it is that it was bought probably early in the sixities: at that time my uncle (my grandfather's son) was starting his collection of acoustic machines, and my grandfather likely bought a gramophone for himself, out of nostalgia.
The motor was probably greased and checked at that time and it still spins very smoothly. Its original soundbox was the one you see in the pictures - a Columbia n°7 I believe - but I have also a n* 8 reproducer which fits perfectly. Amazingly I do not hear a big difference when playing the same disc with one or the other of the two soundboxes, that by the way have been recently refurbished and tuned-up.

Other than the above, I never found any further information about this gramophone, what model, what year etc.

Thanks in advance for any hint about.

[Inigo]

Looks very nice! I'll watch the Columbia companion tonight to see if there's a similar model in the US, but also the UK catalogues should be checked, for the are different models.
Any clues to its origins, European or American imported machine?

[nostalgia]

I think this is a stunning machine, thank you so much for taking the time to upload the photos, and tell about this gramophone. I will await the long time experts to decide what manufacture this is, but if I am allowed to guess...I will say it is a genuine English made Columbia.
I spent some time searching the forum, because I remember Roger (epigramophone) earlier has uploaded photos of a Columbia exterior horn model he owned in the past, and we can at leas see it has big similarities. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=47149&p=279263&hil ... rn#p279263

In particular the way the elbow is attached to the tonearm (something I myself, during my short but hectic time in this hobby) have only seen on a Singapore made Crown machine, and on the Columbia machine Roger is showing in the link above. And of course it is the trademark..the note on the front, the Columbia trademark...and if it is a Columbia it is a pre Plano Reflex arm machine...( we can see the Columbia in the link, has a Plano Reflex arm)

It will be exciting to hear more, when someone with a catalog, or appropriate books and knowledge, can state more about this beautiful machine.

[Paolo_MK68]

Looks very nice! I'll watch the Columbia companion tonight to see if there's a similar model in the US, but also the UK catalogues should be checked, for the are different models.
Any clues to its origins, European or American imported machine?

Good evening Inigo, thank you for the kind words.
I have no clues about where the machine could have come from. Looking at the "made in England" soundbox with the mica diaphragm I'm inclined to think that it was an UK imported machine of the mid twenties, but of course I could be wrong due to ignorance and lack of information. Only thing I'm pretty sure about is that whatever machine was found by early italian collectors had been in the country since long: some passed from the original owner to its heirs in good conditions, others just survived daily abuse, general carelessness, and two world wars only to end up in the fleamarket benches where were saved by the occasional good samaritan, most of them ended in scrap, so the vintage gramophone market today is quite scarce.

[Paolo_MK68]

I think this is a stunning machine, thank you so much for taking the time to upload the photos, and tell about this gramophone. I will await the long time experts to decide what manufacture this is, but if I am allowed to guess...I will say it is a genuine English made Columbia.
I spent some time searching the forum, because I remember Roger (epigramophone) earlier has uploaded photos of a Columbia exterior horn model he owned in the past, and we can at leas see it has big similarities. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=47149&p=279263&hil ... rn#p279263

In particular the way the elbow is attached to the tonearm (something I myself, during my short but hectic time in this hobby) have only seen on a Singapore made Crown machine, and on the Columbia machine Roger is showing in the link above. And of course it is the trademark..the note on the front, the Columbia trademark...and if it is a Columbia it is a pre Plano Reflex arm machine...( we can see the Columbia in the link, has a Plano Reflex arm)

It will be exciting to hear more, when someone with a catalog, or appropriate books and knowledge, can state more about this beautiful machine.

Thank you for the link and the nice words!
Definitey the assembly of the elbow and tone arm looks similar to that of the machine you pointed out to. Pardon my ignorance: does "Columbia Plano Reflex arm" means the typical arrangment with the short swiweling joint and the blunt tube elbows also found on later Columbia portables?

[epigramophone]

I have checked my 1913/14 UK Columbia machine catalogue and yours does not appear. It is a most impressive machine and I hope that someone here will be able to provide you with a positive identification.

[Inigo]

I've checked Barry A. Williamson's PHONOSERVICE BOok Of THe Gramophone - Some Gramophones of the 1920s, where he copies a Clumbia Grafonola Catalogue of 1925, and another Viva-Tonal Catalogue of August 1926. I've found there two later horn models, the only ones in both catalogues, that resemble yours except for the horn. Sorry, but the book is made with photocopies, and the images are very dark and almost undistinguishable. The horn model 1a of 1925 carries a no7 soundbox, and the horn model no2 of 1926 carries the viva-tonal no8 soundbox; otherwise they seem similar.
Here are the two interesting pages, plus two more pages explaining the 1925 no7 soundbox, and the 1926 no8 viva-tonal soundbox. Hope this helps.
The original horn cannot be seen in such obscure copy, but is described as 'metal, black enamelled with gold lines' and the 1926 one equally described, and can be seen better. As far as the case dimensions are the same, I'd bid the two machines are equal, the only progress made from model 1a of 1925 to model 2 of 1926 being the change of soundbox; yet the 1926 model seems to have a single spring motor (for two 10" records) and 11" turntable, while the 1925 model has a double-spring motor (also two 10" records ???) and 12" turntable. So later is smaller.
Here are the images...

[Paolo_MK68]

Dear Inigo,

thank you so much for the time and effort spent in this research. The pages you uploaded are very interesting: I have to check the motor, if I remember well is a single spring type, and as far as I can remember the horn has always been bare brass withou any enamelling, but apart from this my machine looks very similar to those depicted. When time allows me I'll revert with some images of the motor.
Thanks again.

[CarlosV]

I have one that looks very similar to yours, apart from the horn. The soundbox on mine is a later model Columbia, and the speed control is the same as the ones on the portable Columbias. I do not know which model this is, other than it is English.