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 really nice Edison phonograph. The Model A with end gate and simple banner logo, probably from about 1904. It is fitted with the gear-box conversion that allows two and four minute cylinders to be played. The condition is very good and has an original horn, painted black, with brass flare. The phonograph […]

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 “Peter Pan” is probably the best known of the small gramophones often referred to as “Cameraphones” and this is one of the best I haven come across. This is the second type of Peter Pan that appeared in the 1920s. The first design had a small telescopic metal horn attached to the sound-box but […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]