The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Anyone ever seen a square HMV soundbox ? the seller says his grandfather worked for HMV in research during the war ....


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334719878068 ... R5D6prG-YQ

In over 60 years collecting I certainly have never seen anything like this before.
At first glance I wondered whether they were pickup heads, but on closer examination they appear to have stylus bars.
By WW2 HMV's range of acoustic machines consisted mainly of portables. I doubt that they were developing new soundboxes.

They're awesome.
To me, they certainly look genuine although it's something I've never seen before (in any brand).

I would say though, just because the gentleman worked there during WWII, that doesn't mean these can't be older, perhaps something The Gramophone Co's design team were toying with in the late 20's or early 30's?
It would be interesting to see the back of these soundboxes.

I also wonder if the octagonal soundbox just behind one of the square ones, is an HMV or not.

I agree with Gramophoneshane that they could be earlier as they certainly have an art deco look with the straight lines and geometric shapes popular in the 20's-30's. If these were prototypes that never made it into production they must be pretty rare if not unique now .

15 bids so far, but still only up to £40. Tempting, but the 300 mile round trip to collect would be too much for me.

I've always wanted to know how HMV went from a No. 5 and 5A to a No. 16. Either the person in charge of naming the soundboxes couldn't count or there must have been some developed prototypes which they never released commercially.

Those square boxes look like 1930s specimens to me. Are they the missing link? I doubt it but it's anyone's guess at this point.

I'm just as curious to know how they can play a record without the bottom corner scraping the record when the stylus bar protrudes from the opposite corner!

They can't be unique, there are two of them!

The style that is now called 'Art Deco' didn't begin to affect manufacturers like HMV until the 1930s, and lasted into the 50s, so there is no problem about these being from the 1940s, though it is unlikely that there would have been many soundbox prototypes during the war. Probably late 1930s. No problem with the square shape scraping the record, because the stylus bar is set at angle, so that the bottom of the square would be parallel to the record.

There was a previous square soundbox, not from HMV, in the early 1920s, called the Echo-Fon. What's the point? I don't know.

I’m glad someone else spotted these. These strange HMV soundboxes were the items that most fascinated me. The collection includes items from various makers and not just HMV so I wonder if these soundboxes are by another maker but with unauthorised badging as with some old items found in India. Does the badging look a little weak like applied paper?

Just a thought. They are fascinating if real but I think I would want to see more evidence.

Note the early Exhibition soundbox, round hole, tucked behind the bottom one. Certainly a range of items from different ages.

Can someone just not ask the seller to send half decent photos of a few items in the lot? It'll be a lot easier (and potentially a lot less risky for the buyer) than simply speculating on what they might be here.

Steve wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:06 pm Can someone just not ask the seller to send half decent photos of a few items in the lot? It'll be a lot easier (and potentially a lot less risky for the buyer) than simply speculating on what they might be here.

I agree! I think the bidding is likely to go high based on just these soundboxes so lets see a photo of the back of them.