Phonoland

First, I'd like to say hello to everyone \o/ This is my first post here.

We have this old phonograph and can't determine who is the manufacturer or what model it is. Label, on the part which should hold the needle (our is missing), says "FAKIR" and "Made In Germany". I've googled "Fakir German made phonograph" but I had no luck.
We also have one Zonophone record. It's made by International Zonophone Company and tagged X-20150 one one side and X-20129 on the other (had little more luck on googling Zonophone Company about records).
This is everything I could read of the phonograph and the record.

So does anyone have any idea what is the ID of this phonograph? Any post will be appreciated I also must add that I'm totally new to this field and I know very little about old nonelectirc phonographs and companies that made them, so any info will be helpful

Pictures are in gallery at http://imgur.com/a/yWOM9#2

Looking at the photos, possibly a cobbled together fake, or a homemade job slapped together decades ago.

For starters, unless the photo got inverted, the crank is on the left side of the cabinet, instead of the right where it's normally found. (Perhaps the builder was left handed?) The cabinet seems to be constructed out of pine, and roughly assembled, except for the base . Also, normally, the cabinets were square, with the turntable positioned in the center, not toward the side, as is the case here:


(CLICK THE IMAGE TO MAKE IT FULL SIZE)

There were a few exceptions, such as the Emerson Phonograph, but that was a relatively small model, and not at all like the one you have.



The horn, tonearm, brake and speed controls are all pretty generic looking, and probably European (Swiss) in origin. The "U-tube" connector to the sound box seems to have been constructed out of two pieces joined together, or at least there appears to be a seam.

The name on the "sound box" or reproducer seems legit, but there's no guarantee that it's original to the gramophone:


(CLICK THE IMAGE TO MAKE IT FULL SIZE)

I remember coming across the "Fakir" brand name years ago, but can't say where.

Of course, oddities turn up every day. So if someone recognizes this, hopefully they'll chime in.

BTY, these are either called gramophones, or sometimes, "talking machines, " or phonographs, as a more generic term. "Phonogram" is actually an early term used to describe a phonograph cylinder record, though when you do a google image search for that word, you come up with (mostly) pictures of comics.

JDS

Hi JDS!

First, let me apologize for placing my post in an inappropriate topic (I didn't mean to bump the old topic, my goal was not to spam with a new topic if there was already existing one ) and for the redirection link (in my community we anonymize picture links so the hosting sites don't know where the connections are coming from).

Anyway, thank you for the info. I can confirm that the picture was not inverted and that the U-tube is made out two parts. I also found an e-bay link showing another Fakir gramophone. http://goo.gl/NJa6v If you look at the pictures you can see that my and this Fakir text are kind of similar. But really kind of.. So we can conclude that Fakir was an actual company that made gramophones (or brand of gramophones)

I figured that I could look up if there is anything written on the bottom side of cabinet and also if there is anything written inside of it. But first I need to figure out how to open it. There seems to be a key hole on the front side, but of course we don't have it.

And as it goes for the phonograph expression.. We learned at collage that the first mechanical music players were the cylinder phonographs. Then I assumed that the analog version of gramophone is called the phonograph. And at the end, I figured I was misspelling the word the whole time

So if I summon it up. We have an European looking mechanic gramophone that says "Fakir" and "Made in Germany" on the sound box, but we can't determine if it was original to the gramophone. It's a strange model since the crank is sided on the left and the cabin isn't square as the turntable isn't centered. On the front of the cabin there is also a key hole and there is a possibility that the gramophone is home made from different parts (by a left handed enthusiast )

I'll post photos of inside as soon as figure how to open the little devil. Ofc, I'll post aswell if anything is written on the bottom of the cabin.

Offtopic: Thx to sticky in the thread, I immediately pointed out a crap-o-phone today at the local flee market

Hi Red Guy,
As was pointed out recently on this forum, I know nothing about any phonographs that do not have "wires"---
However the name "Fakir" conjures up thoughts--the 2nd one being the "Smuckers" jam and Jelly commercials, where the kid says "--with a name like Smuckers, its gotta be good"-
It was my instant thought upon seeing that name that is should be pronounced "Faker"--Glad that Joe, set this straight !
Ron Rich

Hi Red:

The one for sale on eBay, which looks authentic, dates from about 1926-1930, based on the shape of the horn, tonearm, etc. It was shortly before that period that electrically recorded records hit the market, and most (internal horn) gramophones were redesigned to accommodate the enhanced range. They were fitted with longer, more gradually tapering tonearms and horns than the earlier models.

It's possible that the brand name dates from the era of outside horn gramophones. The sound box you have is very close to others I've seen that were produced during the teens to mid-1920s. Most likely, it was manufactured by a third party supplier and used on a number of different (branded) gramophones.

When I have a chance, I'll look over a couple of books I have profiling European built gramophones and see if I spot anything similar.

JDS