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Just brought home an interesting reproducer I have not seen before. It is labeled AMERIQUE/1911.

Anybody know of this brand? USA or other manufacture? Was there an AMERIQUE phonograph brand?

This came with a Columbia upright phonograph.

Thanks! Cliff

Cliff, I saw this and thought it was pretty cool also! I had no use for the rest of the parts but if I had seen the reproducer standing alone on a table, I would have sprung for the asking price just for this part! Nice find!

I'll bet this is European.

miker2001 wrote:Cliff, I saw this and thought it was pretty cool also! I had no use for the rest of the parts but if I had seen the reproducer standing alone on a table, I would have sprung for the asking price just for this part! Nice find!

He knocked $10 off the price so I went and picked up the phonograph today.

I have seen several styles of these flower-shape reproducers, mostly on German outside horn machines. The actual manufacturer has not been determined yet. Some of them have an additional decorative cover in front of the needle bar:

http://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugi ... c.php?4837

WDC wrote:I have seen several styles of these flower-shape reproducers, mostly on German outside horn machines. The actual manufacturer has not been determined yet. Some of them have an additional decorative cover in front of the needle bar:

http://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugi ... c.php?4837

Excellent! Thanks!

I wonder what piece is missing from the front of this one?

The 1911 is probably a date so that could help determine when this was made, maybe..??

1911 is very possible as the proper date, definitely pre-WW1. That is also the time when the so-called Starkton-Platten became popular. They were advertised as strong volume recordings and basically that's all they were. To my knowledge there was no special underlying recording process involved. You would usually find brass band recordings, so the band was probably just told to play louder than usual.

Interestingly, we just got an update about the manufacturer! It is a German reproducer, made by Wurzener Metallwarenfabrik GmbH in Saxony (what later became East Germany).

Given the two holes on your reproducer and the wider distance, it is very probable that it once had an arrow/fence-like cover. But this was just decoration and further increased the weight. Also the outer flower shape tends to vary between the different models.

I thought I had the same. Here are 2 more for comparison.

Eu tenho algo parecido...

Thanks for sharing! Obrigado por compartilhar!

This is turning out to be a pretty cool reproducer.

This Forum is the right place to be!

Cliff