The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here is a picture of that great British tradition, the picnic, probably taken with a Kodak box camera by a less than competent photographer who has left too much foreground and consequently has decapitated the top of the car.

The car is a "Bullnose" Morris of about 1925 with non-standard disc wheels and the gramophone is a Columbia, probably a 112a, of about 1929. The gentleman's attire reminds us that there was then no concept of casual wear as we know it.

The 2015 rally and show invitations are starting to drop through my letterbox, so I can now start looking forward to re-creating this happy scene with my own Morris and one of my many portables.

Nice picture, thanks for sharing! I also own a Columbia 112a, and I agree that it is most probably the portable in the picture.

I'm looking forward to see the re-enacted picture!

In a slightly more contemporary vein, here is our 1928 Austin 7 Chummy being regaled by a trusty HMV 101 in the jazz mode on a summer's evening somewhere in darkest Hampshire. Cheers....!

One more picture; at my ranch last year. The lamp is burning citronella oil to ward off bugs.

(PS - The ranch is in British Columbia, hence my temerity in posting it in "British and European" - it is part of the Empire, you know!

Hey thar, pardner, that thar citroneller done smoked up yore A-laddin chimbley purt' dang near black. Guess ya don't notice with all that hooch thar. Hope it drug off them pesky skeeters!

emgcr wrote:In a slightly more contemporary vein, here is our 1928 Austin 7 Chummy being regaled by a trusty HMV 101 in the jazz mode on a summer's evening somewhere in darkest Hampshire. Cheers....!

Beautiful.
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What? You mean: the gramophone? Ah yeah, it also looks good.
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The car? Yes, yes, I've seen the car. Not bad either!

Nat wrote:(PS - The ranch is in British Columbia, hence my temerity in posting it in "British and European" - it is part of the Empire, you know!

We truly appreciate your temerity. But your claim is null should those bottles on the table turn out not to be Scotch whisky or Pimm's Nr. 1, I'm afraid!

Three are Single Malts; one, I'm afraid, is Bourbon.

Got me on the smoked chimney! Friends always turn the wick up too high!

Nat wrote:Got me on the smoked chimney! Friends always turn the wick up too high!

Send them a bill next time, since they may have burned up the mantle, too. The price of these things has gone up something fierce in the last ten years or so when I wasn't looking. Luckily, I had bought a dozen of them for about $6 each at an area hardware store that caters to Mennonite and Amish trade. Today I think I've seen mantles listed at twice that price!

This hardware store is so Dutchie that I even found a copy there of the Bible in German (Martin Luther's landmark translation). I have treasured it now for years; the German is beautiful. And it's in the Roman alphabet, not Fraktur, so it's much easier for me to read.

Probably your average hardware store doesn't sell Bibles---especially German ones.

I should have also commented on the wonderful scenes depicted in both of the color photos. What great ways to spend a lovely day! Thanks for posting. And special thanks to epigramophone for starting this thread by posting the period photo.

Send them a bill next time, since they may have burned up the mantle, too. The price of these things has gone up something fierce in the last ten years or so when I wasn't looking. Luckily, I had bought a dozen of them for about $6 each at an area hardware store that caters to Mennonite and Amish trade. Today I think I've seen mantles listed at twice that price!

I can never get the wick properly trimmed on an Aladdin! I much prefer a Rayo anyway!


This hardware store is so Dutchie that I even found a copy there of the Bible in German (Martin Luther's landmark translation). I have treasured it now for years; the German is beautiful. And it's in the Roman alphabet, not Fraktur, so it's much easier for me to read.

Would that be Lehman's? I'd love to get a Luther Bible - even Fraktur, which I used to be able to read.

During these short winter days it is good to think back to long lazy summer evenings in the countryside watching Mother Nature in all her splendour whilst listening to fine music with a top wine in hand---awaiting the sunset with some of the usual suspects. Carpe diem.

Old Winchester Hill, Hampshire. 2nd September 2011. HMV 101. 1923 Vauxhall 30/98.