The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Life is strange, a few days ago I bought an Odeon Lignese, repaired it and now it is ready to be gifted away, and what happens...the morning I started to repair the Lignese, I was given this floor model for free, and it is an Odeon!! Departing with one Odeon, and through the door comes another and bigger Odeon. One can become superstitious for smaller happenings in life...

I quickly understood this was an expensive floor model, the unique horn, the beautiful wood carvings, the brass door knobs, the double spring motor, the details on the furniture itself. A door at the rear side of the gramophone to inspect the horn and the motor, a retractable board under the horn, most probably meant for putting the record cover while playing(and not for cutting bread:;) etc. I have not yet serviced the motor, but already sense strongly the quality in the building, and the unique small details that imho does not make this gramophone inferior to other well known brands, at least not at this stage of checking the gramophone. I post some photos for you to see. I have not been able to identify it yet, so if someone know the model number, it would of course be nice to know. I have also checked quickly at the German forum this morning, but could not find it easily, so I need dive deeper into that forum to possibly find some information, or also post the photos on that forum.

It will admittedly be very hard to depart with after servicing and renovating it, but I don't yet know where to keep it, since my house is saturated to the brink with gramophones now, and the only way to keep it would be to depart with a HMV 145 (something I really don't like, since it was my first HMV gramophone), or put it in the last free corner in my kitchen, which actually may prove itself to be the best solution.

But let us have a look at the photos, pay also attention to the governor details, and the small knob on rim of the governor flange, and the attached auto brake function. I have myself not seen this function before, but some of you may of course recognize it.

The gramophone is from 1919, the old man that gifted it to me, told me it has belonged to the grandparents of his wife's father. They bought it back in 1919, so it has always been in the same femily. The man who gifted it to me, liked my idea that I would restore it, and since he was unable to sell it, he wanted me to have it for free, instead of charging me 20-30 euro that over the phone offered him without having seen the gramophone. He was about to move into a smaller apartment with his wife, and the house had to be emptied as soon as possible. When picking up the gramophone he told me he had a horn gramophone in his sitting room, and asked if I could have a look at it, since he was unable to move the turntable. He told me he only once had removed the turntable, and now had owned this horn gramophone for the last 40 years. I quickly discovered the problem, the motorboard screws were not tight, and the turntable was scratching the motorboard. Three minutes later the gramophone was fixed, and luckily I also had a box of 100 needles in my car, that I gave to him since he admittedly only had the one needle that was attached to the soundbox. I was very happy to help him out, it felt easier accepting the Odeon he gave me this way. I don't remember the name on the soundbox of the horn gramophone right now...zellophone,,or something similar.

But back to the Odeon, here are the photos. Myself I am very impressed, and also astonished by what Odeon here was able to do as far back as in 1919.

That's a nice looking machine, and the horn is cool.
I could be wrong, but the only down side is that it appears to have had it's legs shortened at some point. That's not impossible to fix, and even a set of casters would probably help improve it, but overall it's a really nice machine, and the horn is a very unusual feature.
If the shelf is pretty sturdy, is was possibly intended as a surface to also clean the record with a record duster.
I think if it were mine I'd find it hard not to keep it, just because of its overall unusual design.
Congratulations.

Shane, your explanation of the shelf sounds wise. And yes, I will not be able to part with it, really, I already know. It will probably end in the sitting room, and the HMV 145 in my kitchen corner. And the legs are where they are supposed to be, I just posted a bad photo, not showing the legs, but here is a better photo...also of the legs. And thank you for your congratulations. I know we often do not appreciate floor models too much in here because of their size, but really..I want to keep this..and really, I like floor models, in particular when they are a bit out of the ordinary.

Ah ok, now that I zoom in on the legs in the new photo I can see they're not cut.
I think with my worsening eye sight the left leg kind of blended into the carpet in the first one lol.
And I have to agree, the upright floor models are great. It gives you somewhere to store your records, and smaller table models or those with external horns need to sit on a table anyway, so they really don't take up that much more floor space in the long run.
I'll even buy a wider console model if it like it, and don't worry about whether it takes more floor space.
It's never really made sense to me to avoid a nice console model just so you can squeeze another upright in instead.

What a magnificent, well made, high end machine! Congratulations on such a fine acquisition!

Wow, what a peculiar machine! I wonder if the two horns were intended to deliver two different types of sound, as I see that each half door closes exactly each mouth of each horn. Perhaps one was quieter for night listening, and the other full-tone for daylight listening. And of course both had to be deployed at the same time at parties / dances. Seen their limited size and length, not even to mention that "homemade" bifurcation that makes meatballs of any scientific horn engineering, I don't foresee an imposive sound, but still this twin-horn is intriguing... There may also be records playing better with one horn, and others playing better with the other, who knows? How amusing.

I can't see any friction pad acting over the regulator disc in pictures, and I really wonder how it may work... But perhaps it's just hidden behind.

I pity those two souls who had to get rid of this gramophone, which belonged to their families for over a century. Knowing that it was going into the hands of an enthusiast and an expert, surely was of much relief to them.

Tone arm design, speaker doors, motor design, all look like lawsuits in waiting from the Victor folks! Wonder if anything was ever litigated or threatened at the time.

I kind of doubt it Jerry.
Swiss and German manufacturers were using them for a good decade before Victor's patents ran out. Even copies of the Exhibition soundbox were made in both countries.
I guess because they weren't being sold on Victor turf, they either didn't know or didn't care.

Here in Australia we even had a music store chain around the country selling "Victor Talking Machines" in Aussie made cabinets using Swiss Paillard parts. Some even look a lot like their American counterparts, and that went on for the last half of the 20's without any problems I'm aware of.
Over here you could even get a Victor piano

Marco Gilardetti wrote:Wow, what a peculiar machine! I wonder if the two horns were intended to deliver two different types of sound, as I see that each half door closes exactly each mouth of each horn. Perhaps one was quieter for night listening, and the other full-tone for daylight listening.

I think you might be right there.
I seem to recall seeing a twin horned machine long ago on a long gone forum that was actually called a night and day model.
I'm guessing the left hand round horn was for night, and the other was the louder volume horn.

gramophoneshane wrote:

Marco Gilardetti wrote:Wow, what a peculiar machine! I wonder if the two horns were intended to deliver two different types of sound, as I see that each half door closes exactly each mouth of each horn. Perhaps one was quieter for night listening, and the other full-tone for daylight listening.

I think you might be right there.
I seem to recall seeing a twin horned machine long ago on a long gone forum that was actually called a night and day model.
I'm guessing the left hand round horn was for night, and the other was the louder volume horn.

Possibly a Pathé "Jour et Nuit" (or "Nuit et Jour") like this :