Tropical Teak Portable on UK eBay

[epigramophone]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231456986585? ... EBIDX%3AIT

HMV produced double spring versions of the 101 and 102 portables for the Indian market, these being the Models 112 and 114 respectively. The machine on sale here resembles a 114 in some respects, but several components including the soundbox are not by HMV.

Although the listing specifies "collection only" I thought it worth asking the seller whether he would be prepared to post the machine. He declined, thus restricting his potential market to those within convenient travelling distance of his location. Even at the low starting price of £25 there are currently no bidders.

Some sellers will not be told.

[Phono48]

I think the case, motor and internal horn are original, but the arm, soundbox, needle tray, handbrake and carrying handle ends definitely come from other machines. Just noticed that the winding handle wooden stock doesn't look quite the right shape somehow, and the autobrake is missing. As the original parts would not be hard to find, I would have thought this was worth taking a chance on. The soundbox is gonna be expensive, though!

Barry

[epigramophone]

Such a pity the seller will not post it, as I have the correct soundbox, tonearm, manual and auto brakes waiting in my spares box, plus the tungstyle clip which is also missing.

[Curt A]

It looks like the HMV version of the Victrola 50...

[Phono48]

I too thought I had all the spares needed to bring this back to the original, but looking at it more closely, there are a few things I'm not too happy with. The horn opening at the back is the wrong shape. On my 114, the right hand side comes much closer to the edge of the case, and the arm sits much nearer the turntable. Therefore, if the correct arm were to be mounted where the present one is, the needle would end up about an inch behind the central spindle. The present arm must, presumably be mounted directly above the connection to the internal horn, which again, would be too long for a 114. It's the wrong shape to be the horn from a 112, so I'm wondering if the internal horn has been extended, and the arm mounting board is a non-original replacement?

Or are we barking up the wrong tree, and it's not a 114 at all? Hmm.......

Barry

[epigramophone]

The seller paid dearly for his refusal to offer postage. The machine only made a miserable £36.

[stevel]

It looked a bit odd to me - it was very deep , much deeper than a 101 or 102.
It had a whiff of homemade!

Steve

[epigramophone]

The HMV112 and 114 cases were deeper than the 101 and 102 in order to accomodate their double spring motors. The subject of this thread may well have been a copy, but for £36 someone still got a bargain.