The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Wild! I'd want to see a photo of this in the exhibition!

Garret wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:32 am Wild! I'd want to see a photo of this in the exhibition!

I'd want it in a huge solid gold frame before I'd even consider paying that sort of price.
Yes, it's a spectacular one of a kind machine, but it probably sounds very ordinary, and I think you'd get a much nicer historically important machine for half that price.

It does not speak to me...

gramophone-georg wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 2:55 pm It does not speak to me...

Nor me. Despite the lofty history and monetary value it seems like an elaborate protocrapophone!

It's a bit strange. If there was a gramophone exhibition in Seville in 1925, the record supplements of famous brands would have mentioned it, but no trace of that.
I didn't find any general Norrio, but only a British General of the 1st armoured regiment named Willoughby Norrie, who by 1936-39 (our Civil war) was serving in his regiment in Britain, not in Spain.
To me seems a creative crapophone with an invented story behind....

gramophoneshane wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 12:44 pm I'd want it in a huge solid gold frame before I'd even consider paying that sort of price.
Yes, it's a spectacular one of a kind machine, but it probably sounds very ordinary, and I think you'd get a much nicer historically important machine for half that price.

$46,592.02 (US) -- a year's salary for many people I know.

I'd also expect to see more detail in the provenance, other than a grainy image photo-copied supposedly from a 1970s Christies auction catalog.


All of the key information I googled pointed directly back to the current auction link, as well as this post, leaving me with a lot of unanswered questions:

----Does a copy of the original Christies' catalog in which this allegedly appeared exist?
----WAS there actually a "Gramophone Exhibition" held in Seville circa 1925? If so, does the award-- medal? certificate? --still exist?
----The ad says "silver plated brass." Is this electroplated? Was the silver plating restored? Is there a hallmark on the silver indicating who made it and the silver's quality? Seems to me, if this was made for an exhibition, it wold be "signed" somewhere.
----Why is the base coated with a modern lacquer finish (such as the type used on India-made crap-o-phones)?
----Last of all, who exactly was "General Norrio"? Judging from Google, he once owned a gramophone that's currently for sale.......

Inigo wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:56 pm To me seems a creative crapophone with an invented story behind....

...that's what it's beginning to look like to me...

If you want to know if it was ever really sold at Christies in the 70s, the man to ask is our member here, Oedipus.

For £40k I'd want at the very least the winding handle and inner fittings to be silver plated and the wooden grip to match the base. It looks like an expensive creation with cheap, off the peg, parts inside.

I doubt that this thing started life as a gramophone. The motor board has been cut down to fit, leaving the brake and speed control pointer sticking out of the sides. The speed indicator plate is not present because there is nowhere to attach it.

And that speed lever pointer, the brake lever, and the pontifical red velvet turntable are unmistakable Indian features...
Have you noticed how badly bent the speed lever is, to fit through the outer case? I can see in my mind the yt videos of the Indian workshops making the gramophones with a screw driver, a sharp knife anda good hammer as unique tools...