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I have absolutely no idea what this is - but I like it !

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 500109dbc6

This machine rings a bell... We've seen it in another place... A book...? In the forum...? In a magazine advert?

The telescopic tonearm was an early attempt to achieve parallel tracking, but it suffered from friction and air leaks.

This folding horn triggered some familiarity.
Here are a few photos we found and saved from somewhere on the internet (auction site, another posting, ???), anyway, the pictures are labeled as Primaphone Cabinet Grand. Possibly European? No other information than what is seen in the photos. There is a fairly good view of the tone arm too.

A little more information here :

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/gramoph ... 7322290909

I have a colonial FTA portable machine in teak in its original leather carrying case. It also has a recording horn with it!

The end of the horn is detachable in transit and folds flat from a tapered square section when open. Each side of the teak horn is held together with leather so it is similar to a collapsing bellows arrangement used on a Peter Pan gramophone.

I do like the Primaphone version though with that amazing folding wooden horn. The chance of finding one is about as likely as finding a Dodo knocking at your back door.

It made a strong price, £1450 on the hammer.

It's hardly surprising really. Its very rare but with patents going back as early as 1906 and 1908 to cleverly circumvent Victor and Columbia tonearm patents as well as utilising the ingenious Pathé soundbox coupling system which would somehow two decades later be championed as something new and "ground-breaking" called the "lifebelt" by some unenterprising and long behind the curve British individuals, it is a radically different machine, ahead of its time with unique motor, horn and acoustic system. You've got to like the taper of that arm too!

Several people I showed it to who have never seen a gramophone before, all greatly admired it as a piece of highly visual and attractive furniture too. I guess you could say it's got it all to be a strong seller all round. I think it could have sold for quite a lot more.

Now all I want to know is the precise relationship between FTA, Landon, Edison Bell, Primaphone and the much later Ediswan. Who owned what and who made what first?

There is very little information online about the history of these machines.

I have a couple of FTA machines, and went to have a look at that one at Lawrences. No suggestion of either Edison Bell or Primaphone on it, but one unusual aspect was that it was made of rosewood. I don't know how
many times over the years people have told me their gramophones were rosewood when they were either oak or mahogany, and now, at last, I had found one that really was rosewood!

I have been thinking that I should write something about the FTA in For the Record, and now that I have another example to consider, I might get down to it. But I have never seen any original reference to Edison Bell's involvement. The British Library example on Pinterest used to belong to George Frow, and I think he told me it was Edison Bell, but I never thought to ask him where he got that information. It is not on the machine, nor on the period advertisement for it that he provided for the catalogue of the CLPGS 1977 exhibition. Possibly Edison Bell were merely acting as agents. I was surprised, some time back, to discover that Edison Bell had an HMV agency.

The Ediswan portable I know of from actually seeing one or two, but again I have never seen any documentation, and have no evidence of the date. As a portable, it is similar in plan to the many early portables of 1909-10; maybe Ediswan used the Fixed Tone arm under licence, or maybe it was a bit later and they took over the design when the original makers folded (like the horn...). Ediswan is not known as a gramophone maker, but they did do contract work for other companies, such as producing gooseneck tone arms for the Gramophone Co. when the latter were told that to maintain their patent they needed to make a proportion in this country, instead of importing them all from Victor. Possibly, Ediswan became involved in a similar way with the FTA concern.