What has happened to this HMV 102

[nostalgia]

Another anomaly turned up today in my area, I feel my knowledge and ability to abstain are being tested by the "gramophone deities"
What do you think about this HMV 102?
Did it start as a black 102, and then has later been upholstered? It obviously has a wrong soundbox (a later 23 soundbox), and the corner shields and needle box are black as on black 102s.
The carrying handle fittings are equivalent with wartime fittings. What surprises me though, is the way it has been upholsted, it looks very professionally done, and also not in recent years?
I guess the inner lid HMV commercial is probably glued on to the leatherette.

PS. I have no plans buying this machine, but add it just to show you the machine, and dig up some comments/views.

[soundgen]

I think it has been painted

[nostalgia]

Maybe, what confuses me is the texture of the leatherette, it looks like crocodile texture?. To my yes this doesn't resemble the texture of a black 102, but I can of course be wrong.
I upload a photo of a green 102, that is painted, which was sold in my area some months ago. It also of course would depend on what kind of paint that has been used, but still it confuses me...
There is a scratch close to the carrying handle, I don't know if it is a leftover mark from a previous Pakawa handle or not, maybe it is just a scar, since there are no marks beside the carrying handle fittings on the opposite side.

[Steve]

I'm not sure what your confusion is about really? The green 102 is an overpainted red 102 as evidenced by the red showing through on the carrying handle and also highly visible on the bakelite needle tray.

The top 102 has been recovered.

Neither are worth messing about with or wasting your money on.

[nostalgia]

I know the green 102 is overpainted, Steve, I added it just to show what a painted 102 looks like, in response to Soundgen's response that he felt the red 102 was painted.

The thread was started because of the red crococile textured 102, trying to reason out what has happened to it. So with your response we now have two opinions. One that it is painted, and one that it is recovered which is your opionion, which also was my initial feeling, as stated in the first post.

As also stated, the green painted 102 was sold some months ago in my area, and I never had any plan to buy it, and the red one is neither on my purchase list, as stated in the first post.

[Steve]

Glad we cleared that up!

The red one at top is DEFINITELY recovered. You can see it where its torn and badly scuffed. The mark you referred to is, as you said, the remnants of the hole where the original pakawa handle fed through the case. You answered your own questions at the beginning so I'm still not sure why you're confused?

I know I am now!

[nostalgia]

I wanted to be absolutely sure this was not a machine that could have been made as a "special order" in these colors. I guess it must have been recovered very early in its life, since it does look...old.
I can see this mark close to the carrying handle, and also felt initially it was a leftover mark from a Pakawa handle, then I started to doubt, since there are no mark on the other side of the handle. Myself I can't see any traces of the black leatherette, there are some parts on the front that looks blackish..but it could also be dirt, since the machine is very dirty.
I tried once to remove the black rexine on a black 102, but gave that up after some minutes. It is extremely difficult to remove from the wood. Who ever recovered this machine has done it professionally as I can see it.

Maybe I buy it just to check if the black rexine is still under the red cover ( Joke..I hope)

[Inigo]

Three years after I purchased (1981) my first gramophone, a portable with Swiss Thorens hardware, branded Diana, which I believe was of Italian manufacture, I started to feel the original green rexine was too dirty and obscured, so I decided to redo it again. I completely removed the green cover, which was easy, as it must have been glued with animal glue. I recovered it completely in a flamboyant new red rexine. 1984.
After 20 years, my work started to peel off at the corners, etc, so I decided again to remove it and redo once more, (2005 or so) but this time using a green rexine similar to the original one. This time it was very difficult to remove, as I did use shoemakers glue, which is not so easily removed. The poor machine has passed the last 15 years abandoned, semi-peeled off... Recently I resumed the project, but it's being pretty difficult. Now I'm stranded, playing with a better idea : to make a new wooden case and motorboard. The original arrangement was not good (bad tracking angle, horrendous) and the tin horn is a bad copy of the 101's, so my plans are to build a better horn in wood inside the new case. A difficult matter, but here I am, decided to start this next september...

[nostalgia]

As a collector there is always some "work" to do. I admire your guts to recover a portable gramophone. I am not there yet myself, and also doubt I will ever get there, since my artistic and handywork skills when it comes to this kind of work are extremely limited. Good luck with your project, Inigo!