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Well that pretty much confirms in my mind that you've got an Odeon, made by the International Talking Machine Co of Berlin!
I do have other German pressing that are slightly over 10" in diametre, but none quite as big as these older pre-war Odeons. I'm not sure when Odeons started to be made in the regular 10" size, but I would suspect it happened during the WWI period because the Odeons I have from after the war are all of the reduced size. Obviously we weren't importing during the war, so I've never found any to know approximately what year the change occured, & I'd image the TT size would have been reduced at the same time.

gramophoneshane wrote:Well that pretty much confirms in my mind that you've got an Odeon, made by the International Talking Machine Co of Berlin!
I do have other German pressing that are slightly over 10" in diametre, but none quite as big as these older pre-war Odeons. I'm not sure when Odeons started to be made in the regular 10" size, but I would suspect it happened during the WWI period because the Odeons I have from after the war are all of the reduced size. Obviously we weren't importing during the war, so I've never found any to know approximately what year the change occured, & I'd image the TT size would have been reduced at the same time.

Excellent deduction Shane! So it appears to be a pre 1914 Odeon. Since there are no Odeon markings it
may have been sold as an in-house brand for the Music House Mercury in Mainz. I attached a better pic of the plate in case Andreas wants to take another shot at translating. It is kind of tough to read since there is no contrasting paint on the letters.

antique1973 wrote:I attached a better pic of the plate in case Andreas wants to take another shot at translating. It is kind of tough to read since there is no contrasting paint on the letters.

Sorry, I still can't make out that last word in the first line that starts with "Spezial". Tried all kinds of modifications with Picasa, without success. If you can read more of this word or at least give me as many letters as you can read I can give it another shot.
Regarding the size of the turntable, maybe it's metric size, like 27 centimeters? I think I've seen some odd size German 78s.
Andreas

I've found that sometimes you can make those old dealer tags more readible by putting a drop of sewing machine oil on your finger & rubbing it into the tag. It can help bring up the contrast between the background & lettering a bit better. I've actually done this a couple times when I've photographed them for feature phonograph posts etc, otherwise they'd be barely readible lol.

antique1973 wrote:Since there are no Odeon markings it may have been sold as an in-house brand for the Music House Mercury in Mainz.

It was my first guess that your nice gramophone is an in-house brand. Surely one of the better models because of the two spring motor, but I cannot identify the marking "N".

The still unidentified word on the dealer tag reads "Spezialgeschäft" (= specialty store).

I have lived in Mainz for three years and your thread awakes memories ...

So you dont think it was made by Odeon/ITMC then?
I did find one Odeon in a search that appeared to have an identical back bracket (from what I could see), but the tonearm was earlier as the taper tube was stepped. It was one of those small pictures though that you cant enlarge to get a good look at.
Do you know of any other German record or machine manufactures around this time were also using
10 ¾" discs/turntables?

alang wrote:

antique1973 wrote:I attached a better pic of the plate in case Andreas wants to take another shot at translating. It is kind of tough to read since there is no contrasting paint on the letters.

Sorry, I still can't make out that last word in the first line that starts with "Spezial". Tried all kinds of modifications with Picasa, without success. If you can read more of this word or at least give me as many letters as you can read I can give it another shot.
Regarding the size of the turntable, maybe it's metric size, like 27 centimeters? I think I've seen some odd size German 78s.
Andreas

Sorry Andreas, I think this picture is just as bad as the other one. Here is the word: "Spezialgefman" and the "a" has two dots above. Thanks!

gramophoneshane wrote:So you dont think it was made by Odeon/ITMC then?
I did find one Odeon in a search that appeared to have an identical back bracket (from what I could see), but the tonearm was earlier as the taper tube was stepped. It was one of those small pictures though that you cant enlarge to get a good look at.
Do you know of any other German record or machine manufactures around this time were also using
10 ¾" discs/turntables?

This Odeon turntable appears to be of more recent manufacturing, although
it has the same "Swiss cheese" appearance as mine.

eBay Item #170575498796

Starkton wrote:

antique1973 wrote:Since there are no Odeon markings it may have been sold as an in-house brand for the Music House Mercury in Mainz.

It was my first guess that your nice gramophone is an in-house brand. Surely one of the better models because of the two spring motor, but I cannot identify the marking "N".

The still unidentified word on the dealer tag reads "Spezialgeschäft" (= specialty store).

I have lived in Mainz for three years and your thread awakes memories ...

Thank-you Starkton, I am glad you enjoy the thread. I am always curious what journeys a particular machine may have experienced over the years. Unfortunately the seller was unable to provide any historical information as to how it arrived in California. Its ok though,the mystery is part of the fascination for me.

Gee,I'm not sure if '73 mentioned that it was for sale right away on the "Yankee Trader". I just saw this new find on the Ebay block.... .

Ebay #320632074151