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Hello everyone,
I recently acquired a horn from Ontario, Canada that both looks old and looks new. If you are able to, could you please shed some light on this?
The construction of the horn appears similar to some Columbia horns and features oak plywood and an apparently old finish. The small end of the horn, however, has an unoxidized aluminum insert which appears to be of recent vintage. I found the horn to be visually appealing and decided to acquire it solely on its "cuteness" factor, but I would love to know if some or all of this horn is old, or is it newer and cleverly pretending to be old. It might be worth noting that the screws that hold the small end together are slot head and, by slight deformation of the slots, appear to have been removed at some point. Also of note, there is a small hold at 10:00 in the 3rd photo which would be, assume, for a chain to attach to.
Thank you - I shall look forward to your comments - and my feelings won't be hurt to find that it is currently in production somewhere.
Don Mayer

Could be the bell of a 1920's radio horn -- possibly Amplion -- that's been adapted for use as a phonograph horn.

-- Grant

Fonotone wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:05 pm Could be the bell of a 1920's radio horn -- possibly Amplion -- that's been adapted for use as a phonograph horn.
-- Grant

Well spotted, Grant! A little deeper research shows this to be an intact and unmodified horn for an Aplion Jr AR-43 radio speaker which may have been only made in 1923. Attached is a sample of what I found (a complete one sold for $888 back in 2014).

Thank you so much for shedding light on this.

Cheers,

Don

vichighmathguy wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 7:14 pm

Fonotone wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:05 pm Could be the bell of a 1920's radio horn -- possibly Amplion -- that's been adapted for use as a phonograph horn.
-- Grant

Well spotted, Grant! A little deeper research shows this to be an intact and unmodified horn for an Aplion Jr AR-43 radio speaker which may have been only made in 1923. Attached is a sample of what I found (a complete one sold for $888 back in 2014).

Thank you so much for shedding light on this.

Cheers,

Don

Screen Shot 2022-01-02 at 4.07.28 PM.png

My pleasure, Don. Glad the mystery's been solved. If you'd like to turn it back into a radio horn, someone is offering the correct base and driver on ebay.

Here's the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115164051282/? ... y-auctions

--Grant