Very Unique cobbled together gramophone with a story
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:49 am
I bought this late last year at auction here in Melbourne Australia with the intention of parting it out if I won the auction.
Well , I won the auction and quickly nutted out what all the parts came off ( apart from the turntable ) and became quite attached to it as its a really unusual combination of parts for someone to even have access to, to make this.
At the auction I bought this from the vendor had with it a catalogue from an auction of gramophones and phonographs back in c1985 ( I started collecting in 92 ) here in Melbourne which gave a link to where this may have come from.
I took it to show another collector here with great knowledge of the hobby itself and also of the early dealers in Melbourne and when I said where it must have come from. He gets up, goes to his bookcase, pulls out a booklet with all articles and adds pertaining to gramophones with an article from c1960 of someone holding this gramophone.
So what we believe the likely story with this is as follows.
The person holding the gramophone is John Jackson. His father Carl had a phonograph shop in Melbourne in early c1900's. John was born in c1900 and it is written down that he ( John ) made his first gramophone when he was 8 ( not this one ) and we are assuming John made this maybe when he was a teenager with access to his fathers parts. John Jackson opened up his first gramophone shop in about c1926 and the picture in the article is when his shop was closing down after all those years in c1960. John sold a lot of his gramophones and parts to HF ( I'll just use the initials ) at around that time and we think John may have passed away in the early 80's. The auction back in c1985 I believe was gramophones and phonographs from John Jackson and or HF collections.
This gramophone was not in the c1985 auction. I emailed the auction house to enquire where the vendor got it from and how long they had owned it. I didn't really get an answer to either but it was one of HF kids that put it in the auction.
It's surprising why that gramophone is the one he chose to hold in the picture. It may simply be as its small or did it have sentimental value?. In the article it just refers to it being the " first hmv record player ever made " which clearly its not. Unfortunately I'll never know.
One thing I do know is that some very rare machines came out of the John Jackson, HF collections.
Finally the crank on it now is different to that pictured in the article and if something could enlighten me what the turntables off.
Thanks
Stephen
ch
Well , I won the auction and quickly nutted out what all the parts came off ( apart from the turntable ) and became quite attached to it as its a really unusual combination of parts for someone to even have access to, to make this.
At the auction I bought this from the vendor had with it a catalogue from an auction of gramophones and phonographs back in c1985 ( I started collecting in 92 ) here in Melbourne which gave a link to where this may have come from.
I took it to show another collector here with great knowledge of the hobby itself and also of the early dealers in Melbourne and when I said where it must have come from. He gets up, goes to his bookcase, pulls out a booklet with all articles and adds pertaining to gramophones with an article from c1960 of someone holding this gramophone.
So what we believe the likely story with this is as follows.
The person holding the gramophone is John Jackson. His father Carl had a phonograph shop in Melbourne in early c1900's. John was born in c1900 and it is written down that he ( John ) made his first gramophone when he was 8 ( not this one ) and we are assuming John made this maybe when he was a teenager with access to his fathers parts. John Jackson opened up his first gramophone shop in about c1926 and the picture in the article is when his shop was closing down after all those years in c1960. John sold a lot of his gramophones and parts to HF ( I'll just use the initials ) at around that time and we think John may have passed away in the early 80's. The auction back in c1985 I believe was gramophones and phonographs from John Jackson and or HF collections.
This gramophone was not in the c1985 auction. I emailed the auction house to enquire where the vendor got it from and how long they had owned it. I didn't really get an answer to either but it was one of HF kids that put it in the auction.
It's surprising why that gramophone is the one he chose to hold in the picture. It may simply be as its small or did it have sentimental value?. In the article it just refers to it being the " first hmv record player ever made " which clearly its not. Unfortunately I'll never know.
One thing I do know is that some very rare machines came out of the John Jackson, HF collections.
Finally the crank on it now is different to that pictured in the article and if something could enlighten me what the turntables off.
Thanks
Stephen
ch
