The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171555821864? ... EBIDX%3AIT

This picture raises a number of questions.

What is the significance of the skull on display?

Why is the picture printed back to front, or is the portable a left hand drive version for the American market ?

Why take such a picture at all?

Suggested captions invited......

Obviously the photo was reversed in the making of the post card (quite common). You can clearly see the portables name is also reversed. Try looking at this in a mirror..... .

What? Doesn't everyone have a "skull"pture or two in there home?

Possibly the skull belonged to the previous owner and maybe he never liked to be very far from his favorite machine. Just a thought.

Wes

"Description: Original vintage photo RPPC of a man seated cross-armed next to a record player, a human skull quietly propped on a shelf above them both."

You see, that's the selling point: the quiet skull. You don't want to buy one of those noisy skulls. They sound terrible when they sing along with the gramophone.

Here is how the original photo would have looked:

was wondering what RPPC meant?

RPPC - A real photo postcard, sometimes referred to by the acronym or initialism RPPC, is a continuous-tone photographic image printed on postcard stock. The term recognizes a distinction between the real photo process and the lithographic or offset printing processes employed in the manufacture of most postcard images.

I think that in my parents day when you had a film re-printed you could have the prints with a postcard style backing to send to your friends. As opposed to the kind of commercial postcards one buys at touristic places.

A RPPC of a man playing his phonograph for a captive audience
Harvey Kravitz

The music clearly went to his (or her) head....

Maybe he was just bored out of his skull.