The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Some collecting friends in the UK pointed this out to me.

An auctioneer was selling about 180 lots of Phonographs tomorrow, announced without photo's or descriptions. example;

883 Gramophone - Green box
884 Gramophone - table top model
885 Gramophone - Decca box
886 Gramophone - Columbia
887 Gramophone - Savannah box
888 Gramophone - Sylvaphone box
889 Gramophone - blue box
890 Gramophone - happy hour box
891 Gramophone - Ussemola box
892 Gramophone - Columbia table top
893 Gramophone - HMV 103
894 Gramophone - Columbia box
895 Gramophone - HMV blue
896 Gramophone - blue box


Green Box....could it be a Lioret in a travelling case ???

Allegedly Hansons Auctioneers, Etwall, Derbyshire also did not reply to emails requesting pictures or more details.

Imagine if this was your collection!!

If one is - as an auctioneer - clueless to the lots one is consigned
1.) put photo's with the descriptions, its easy
2.) find a local collector to help with the description, Its worth the money.

Quite rightly that the vendor has withdrawn all the lots from the sale at the last moment. I presume its a deceased estate as a collector would have provided propper descriptions!


Just found this article:
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Gramo ... story.html

Somewhat of a difference in the tone of the article and the auctioneers indifference to the collection in reality.

... and it gets worse ! I had booked the day off tomorrow to go and have just found out that "the vendor has withdrawn ALL the gramophones" even though there is nothing on their website and they are still all listed in the catalogue. I rang to confirm and it is true but there is no explanation or apology .......

How can people that stupid be successful in business?

I'm afraid to say that, yes, incompetent as these auctioneers obviously are, they are the rule of the thumb over here and sadly not the exceptions!

All auctioneers are CLUELESS and care not a jot about anything gramophone related. One auctioneer even described an original HMV horn machine (worth about £1200) as a "tabletop gramAphone, probably reproduction" !!!!

I told them what it was and their reply was something like "Thanks, we'll change it". Needless to add, they never did!

You never see more than ONE lousy picture if you're lucky and the descriptions are laughably poor. ALL UK auctioneers are the same, even SAS! There is NEVER any reference to condition, replacement parts, or anything else that might better inform potential buyers. In other words, caveat emptor, and you need to be there!

As a buyer I love this type of auctioneer. As a seller I am horrified.