Phonoland

Over the years I've spotted a number of UK-made gramophones dating from the late 1920s to about the mid 1930s, that were either originally exported to the US for sale, or brought in at a later date by collectors--I'm not sure which.

These were sold under a variety of different brand names, and the cabinets are normally rather cheaply constructed, but made to look fancy. In almost all cases, they are equipped with long metal horns of the style fitted into the British made Columbia Viva-Tonal models--though not divided into two chambers; swan-neck tone arms similar to those used on the HMV 101 portables; unbranded Swiss-made sound boxes, and Garrard motors.

I used to own one that bore the name "Mastertone. " This one was constructed out of 1/4 inch plywood with a few patches of mahogany veneer placed here and there in decorative patterns, and some type of hardwood used for the corner posts, but coated with a stained lacquer finish to blend in with the rest of the cabinet. It only weighed about 20 pounds. For its size, it sounded quite good--more like a small electric table-top phonograph than an acoustic one--though it paled in comparison with the similarly sized Victor Colony (fitted with the same horn used in the Consolette).

There are a few of these listed on eBay at this time:

(Shows Typical Internal Components) http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-English-Fur ... dZViewItem

(More typical to what I've seen, in terms of cabinet style, but this one has been gutted) http://cgi.ebay.com/CONVERTED-ENGLISH-V ... dZViewItem

At the bottom, I've posted another example--one for sale on Craigslist--though unfortunately, it's hard to see any details from the small photograph.

In any event, I'm wondering if anyone has information to share about these British made "mystery gramophones." Were they made solely for the export market, or were these also available for sale in the UK? Was one supplier responsible for these, or were they sold by a variety of small companies, but fitted with the same types of components?


FROM CRAIGSLIST.ORG

Mystery is right!
We get a lot of UK & Aussie made machines like this here too. 99% of them use either Garrard, Thorens or Pilliard components.
Some seem to have come from small time operators that specifically manufactured gramophones, & probably didn't last more than a couple of years. The bulk of our english made off or no brand imported machines would fall into this catagory, and most would have been imported brand new, but some no doubt came down under amoungst people person belongings. I would imagine that a much smaller percentage of UK machines would have been exported new to the USA, but no doubt some would have.
There was also a trend with antique dealers here in the 80's & 90's to import a container load of "antiques" from the UK for $15,000 & they usually included at least a couple of these types of machines, so if the same thing was happening in the USA it might account for a large percentage of what turns up there now.
As for aussie machines, most are either music store or furniture store machines. Rexonola is the only company I can think of that manufactured a specific range of machines & sold them just about everywhere under their own brand name. All the others I've seen have either come from a furniture factory that made all the furniture for a particular store or chain of store, or made by a gramophone company who supplied many different furniture & music stores with a range of cabinet styles exclusively for that store, but used exactly the same components on every machine the manufactured. Some are well branded with the furniture or music store name, and included decals or plaques with model numbers & fancy names, other have just a catchy name decal but no real information about where it was sold or who made it, and others don't have any name etc at all.
I would imagine the same sort of thing happened in the UK, but probably not as much as here.
I think in a lot of cases, the only way to track down info on most of these machines would be to get hold of every small town & city news paper, and hope to goodness you come across advertising showing the same machine. Unless that happens, many of these will continue to be a mystery.

Hi Shane:

Many thanks!

It seems that--in terms of the off-brand gramophones produced--the situation in the UK, during the late 1920s-early 1930s, was similar to that in US during the late teens to about the mid-1920s. That, of course, was the heyday of the 'ola knockoffs and dime-a-dozen type machines, although it also resulted in some high quality brands--Brunswick, Sonora, Cheney, and Aeolian Vocalion--to name a few.

I will say this about the UK-made off brand gramophones: while the cabinets are generally cheap, the internal components are well designed and of high quality. Had larger exponential type horns been installed, they may have given the name brand gramophones a run for the money. (It might be fun, someday, to experiment by installing a custom-made exponential horn into one that's in so-so condition, or missing its horn.)

What you say about scouring old newspapers is true. Very often, that' the only way to find this information. I'm hopeful that they will all be on the web--at some point--for free. Unfortunately, while many newspaper archives are available now, there's normally a "per-page" charge for viewing them.

Along this line, I'm wondering if there were any UK-based gramophone trade publications printed during the late 1920s, onward, that tracked the industry, other than "The Gramophone," which concentrated mostly on recordings. (Where's Compton Mackenzie when you need him!) Someday, someone has got to re-publish these, if they exist! (I know, for instance, that copies of "The Talking Machine World," which tracked the US industry, were available at one time from Tim Gracyk. I don't know if he still has these, though.)

Hi Joe,

The second gramophone in your thread is an "Academy". They show up for sale here in Holland very,very often. They had a wide range from portable to "de luxe" cabinets. They must have been very popular.
Here's an example

Engbo,

That's a cunning little machine, very nice. It looks like it's rather short, maybe only about three feet or so? The tone are looks similar to a Columbia one. It that a N.O.S. tin of Bagshaw's Brilliantone needles?

Regards,
J.

We get the Academy's out here in Australia too. I've seen a few different upright & console models over the years. They must have been one of the more successful off-brand businesses.