Here is a really quirky gramophone made by the Vickers Armstrong Company and made available in the UK in about 1929. The gramophone is a copy of an earlier design available in America and known as a “Polly Portable”. The gramophone dispenses with the standard sound-box and uses a card horn only to produce sound. […]

The Decca Company made their name during the First World War by making the first easily portable gramophones that could be sent to the front lines as entertainment for the troops. (There were probably other portable machines available, but Decca got most of the credit). Genuine FWW Deccas became known as “Trench Models”. The Decca […]

This gramophone was made by the Selby Manufacturing Company London. The company produced gramophones in the early 1920s and ceased trading in 1933. They were noted for making internal horned mainly so this horned version is a rare early example. The gramophone is well made with an oak case and a particularly skillfully made wooden […]

Here is a very nice Columbia portable in good original condition. The model 201 from abut 1930. Columbia and The Gramophone Company (HMV) were the main producers of good quality gramophones from the beginning of the 20th century and were amalgamated into EMI in 1931. At that time the most popular HMV portable was the […]

The “Colibri” was a miniature gramophone, produced in Belgium and made available in about 1928. It has an all-metal case, just 12 x 9 x 9 cm but, when assembled, can play a standard 10″ 78 record which must be bolted down onto a 3cm turntable with a left hand threaded nut. The case itself […]

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 […]

Here is a nice example of a Decca gramophone with the design very like the early “Trench ” Gramophones” made popular during the 1st WW. This model 2 is from about 1918-20. The gramophone uses the principle of the “reflex” horn where the sound from the sound-box is carried through the tone-arm to a metal […]

Here is another example of the HMV model 102 portable gramophone from about 1932. It is in a black case in very good condition. It plays really well with a No.5A sound-box. Collectors should be aware, when buying a 102 that the excellent No.5A and 5B sound-boxes are subject to “pot-metal-decay” which causes the back-plates […]