Items of interest – JOHN SLEEP GRAMOPHONES

These items are not for sale at the moment .

This is an example of a Mark IX £MG gramophone from about 1932. These gramophones were the brainchild of Ellis Michael Ginn and the strong a selling point was that they were “Hand-Made” rather than mass produced. This meant that production was always a struggle for the company which split into two separate enterprises in 1930. EMG gramophones continued to be made, but Ginn started up a rival company making “Expert” hand- made gramophones and radios. The history of the competing enterprises is explained in detail in Francis James’s book “The EMG Story”.
After much experimentation with different materials, the hall-mark if the EMG machines was the choice of Papier Mache to construct the oversized horns. These horns, in combination with excellent sound-boxes give really excellent sound reproduction. the sound-box in this case is a modified “Meltrope” type of box.

Rare Australian 78s

Here is a selection of rare Parlophone records, made in Australia, and featuring Maori songs and artists. There are five Read more

French "Gypsy" Miniature Gramophone

Here is a real rarity, the French made "Gypsy" gramophone, almost certainly the smallest gramophone made in that country. It Read more

Early "Berliner" Type Gramophone.

Here is a really early gramophone from the very beginning of recorded sound, possibly the very first commercially available music Read more

"Alfresco" Portable Gramophone.

This is a very early "portable" gramophone from about 1912. Although Decca gramophones had the reputation of being the first Read more

"Nirona" Toy Gramophone

This is a nice example of one of the many tin-plate toy gramophones produced in Germany in the early 1920s. Read more

"Eclipse" Miniature Gramophone.

This is a mystery gramophone made in the form of a "Cameraphone" and is rather like the more usual examples Read more

Edison Diamond Disc playing Machine

Collectors will be familiar with early wind-up gramophones which play, in general, 78 rpm discs. Some will have found the Read more

Apollo Portable

This is an interesting and particularly attractive portable gramophone known as the "Folding Apollo" from 1921, (Proudfoot's book, Collecting Phonographs Read more

Cameraphone

Many small gramophones are referred to as cameraphones as they look rather like the Box-Browie cameras in use at the Read more