The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks for getting the pics Jamie ! Wow, 2 examples of previously un-heard of HMV 18 soundboxes.....

Time to update "His Master's Gramophone", I think!

I'm reminded of when Frank James published his amazing "EMG Story" and then rare, previously unseen EMG models and soundboxes started appearing out of the blue! This is much stranger though, given how much time and background research the Late Roger Thorne put into investigating the HMV archives before Messrs. Proudfoot and Oakley finished the job off once and for all. You might think there would have been some mention of a No. 18 soundbox somewhere at sometime?

HMV was a huge organisation with fastidious departments working to catalogue all their stocks of records and instruments. It wasn't exactly a slack organisation. EMG was a more loosely run outfit and one suspects less comprehensive in its efforts to catalogue everything the company sold.

It is an extraordinary find.

I've always known from the numbering that there must have been some prototype sound boxes that never got into production, even though it was evident that many were electric pickups. Known pickups (the No 11, for example, which is in the ebay lot) is one of those between 5 and 16. Now that we know this square job is No 18, we can assume it must date from about 1931, when the No 16 appeared. The next HMV number I know of is 21, which was the re-badged Columbia 15a, first seen, I think, in 1933. A further thought is that, from 1931, it would have made sense to avoid duplicating HMV and Columbia numbers; there was a Columbia No. 20, so perhaps there never was an HMV 20, prototype or otherwise..

A pity they come with such a burden of things I don't want, or I might have been tempted to bid. Still, at least I now know about them. The 18 might never have gone into production, but if it did, it would have been used on an export model.

Sold for £378. No surprise - there were many valuable items including for example an EMI Angel and Ortofon amongst the pickup heads. I do hope the soundboxes surface!

Yes £378 plus collection or courier !

Bargain! I was expecting over £1000 with those microphones, pickups and the rare soundboxes. You can't even buy half an EMG soundbox for that price.

Yes indeed: a bargain…
Think: 2 unknown HMV soundboxes, EMG, Orthophon and so on…
I really don‘t know why it went so cheap.

Calle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:27 pm Yes indeed: a bargain…
Think: 2 unknown HMV soundboxes, EMG, Orthophon and so on…
I really don‘t know why it went so cheap.

Probably because there were too many items in the lot. I've been at auctions where too many items are lumped together and the lot sells for little more than one item might have done on its own.

Calle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:27 pm Yes indeed: a bargain…
Think: 2 unknown HMV soundboxes, EMG, Orthophon and so on…
I really don‘t know why it went so cheap.

I didn't see an EMG soundbox in this lot, but I might have missed something?

Orchorsol wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:26 pm

Calle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:27 pm Yes indeed: a bargain…
Think: 2 unknown HMV soundboxes, EMG, Orthophon and so on…
I really don‘t know why it went so cheap.

I didn't see an EMG soundbox in this lot, but I might have missed something?

Not an EMG soundbox but I recall someone mentioning a pickup? Anyway, there were far more valuable items than that in the lot.