The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

CarlosV wrote:

krkey1 wrote:

billybob62 wrote:The problem is that there is plenty of good reliable stuff on the low or beginner end but as tastes develope towards more desirable phonographs, the product isn't there. The really nice stuff is getting priced too high for the average Joe. That's the sad truth.
It's like house prices. How will our kids and grandkids afford a house? They will turn their backs on the McMansions.

I had honestly never thought of it that way. There are finite amount of high quality original machines and demand is growing. Someone is bound to fake them.

On the subject of desirable and scarce machines, I have seen Berliner trade marks made in the 70s or 80s that are very hard to discriminate from the real ones; one that was for sale in the annual trade meeting in Germany looked original, until I looked under it to see hex nuts fixing the motor - these machines utilized square nuts. Only then the seller conceded that it was a repro, and told that it was made 30 years ago. The rest of the machine looked authentic, down to worn leather elbow, aged varnish and faded felt, which is scary.

Green Mountain Bill wrote:A couple of thoughts from me.......

So valuable have some coins become that they must be certified to be sold. The shape of each number of the date, the idiosyncrasies of each dot and curl on Miss Liberty's head, and the style of the mint mark is examined in great detail to establish authenticity. When phonographs of my poor little collection collection reach that level of value, I will be long gone.

I for one can't wait to have a 3-D printer available in my shop that will allow me to scan and reproduce broken pot metal parts in order to keep antique phonographs and radios working. I have a long list of machines waiting for parts and I would gladly create a missing lever or gear to get them working again. After all, a broken, silent phonograph is just a door stop.

Green Mountain Bill

P.S.: After the A.I. Singularity of 2046 occurs, will anyone really want to have my VE-9-40X to play Othophonic Scrolls or be able to find an AM radio station to listen to?

Financial gain is arguably the most obvious reason why someone would go through the trouble of creating a forgery. But sometimes money isn’t the motivation. Sometimes, the goal is simply to show that reproducing a high-quality work can be done — and to put an arrogant art expert in his or her place. This was apparently the case when a Rhode Island man made a very convincing Great Chair that fooled many antiques authorities for several years.

Armand LaMontagne, a self-taught artist, is now known for his hyper-realistic sculptures of famous athletes. But in 1969, LaMontagne reportedly used his woodworking skills to fabricate a throne-like, 17th-century armchair with impressively turned spindles. LaMontagne was careful to pay attention to such details as using green oak that warped when the wood dried out, and wooden pins based on those made in the Colonial era to hold elements of the chair together. He also is said to have used various techniques to “age” the chair, as any wooden object that was to have survived several centuries would need to show heavy wear.

As the story goes, LaMontagne took no money for his Great Chair, but placed it in a house in Maine where he felt it would catch the eye of antiques enthusiasts — and it did. The chair exchanged hands and was eventually sold to the Henry Ford Museum in 1970 for $9,000 as a Brewster Great Chair. The highly prized acquisition was thought to have been built for William Brewster, one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Powerful men of Brewster’s time were the ones who owned “great” chairs, showing off their high status in the community.

The artful prank came to light in 1977 after an article in The Providence Journal highlighted LaMontagne’s deceptive endeavor and described a chair that matched the one in the Henry Ford Museum. The museum investigated and after extensive analysis was performed on the chair, it was concluded that it was, in fact, a modern creation. The Henry Ford Museum decided to make lemonade from lemons. The museum kept the chair and have used it as a teaching object for inquisitive visitors, lending it to other exhibitions that explore the stories behind great fakes.

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