This is another restoration project based on a classic early gramophone, The Gramophone Company’s Monarch from about 1905. The Gramophone Company was the UK company that became known as “His Master’s Voice” or HMV. The series of gramophones known as “Monarchs” began in about 1902 and this example has an oak case with, I think, […]

I tend to avoid buying cabinet gramophones nowadays as collectors prefer smaller models that can be tucked away when not needed, however HMV produced a series of very good cabinet machines from about 1927 that still have an appeal. The smallest was the 145, then came the 157, as pictured here, then the 163, 193 […]

Thomas Edison produced the first “Standard” phonograph in1898 and was known as the “Square Top” due to the shape of the case which had square corners. Later models had the more familiar curved lid. The model in the picture is the model B from about 1905 with the banner logo on the front of the […]

Here is a rare gramophone, the “Polly Portable”. This machine first appeared in the US in about 1915 but an almost identical version called the “Guiniphone” was later made in the UK by the Vickers Armstrong Company, famous for making armaments. The gramophone design was one of the few that attempted to do away with […]

This original horned gramophone was made by the Coventry company “George Robey” in about 1913. The company made a wide range of domestic items including bicycles, kettles and also gramophones which they sold by mail order. Some examples were labelled “Robeyphone”. The name “George Robey was later changed to “Charles T Robey ” to avoid […]

The “Gem” was the smallest of the range of phonographs produced by Thomas Edison around 1900. It was developed to compete with small Continental phonographs that had become very popular in Europe and the UK, but was much better designed. The reproducer was guided precisely across the cylinder with a feed screw instead simply following […]

The most popular portable gramophone in the 1920s was the model 101. The standard model had a black case but top of the range versions could have cases of a variety of colours. The gramophone has been serviced and plays well with the correct No.4 sound-box free from “pot-metal decay”. This earlier version has a […]

Here is a really interesting gramophone developed by William Clifton in about 1928. William Clifton, who had several of his inventions patented, founded the “Cliftophone and Records Limited” in London that year. HIs aim was to revolutionize the reproduction of sound and music. Several models were produced but the company ceased trading in 1929. The […]

Phonographs were the first musical machines that could play recorded words and music, introduced just before 1900 and used wax ( and later celluloid) cylinders for the recordings. The recording was in the form of ridges on the bottom of the cylinder grooves that were decoded by a stylus, usually a sapphire or glass ball. […]

Here is another good example of the HMV model102 from the mid 1930s. It is in a black case in above average condition and a No.5A sound-box free from Pot Metal decay. The gramophone has been serviced and is in very good condition. The HMV 102 is the most sort after portable gramophone at the […]