Back in the early '80s I worked for a British auto mechanic named Roy who owned an independent service shop specializing in the higher-end British makes (he was a factory trained Jaguar mechanic), as well as European exotics, etc. The shop was maintained so clean that you could eat off the floor, almost literally. No car entered without first having the entire drive train steam cleaned under the bonnet and underneath from stem to stern. We wore white uniforms.
He used to have a bumper sticker, which he would carefully apply to the rear bumper of any Rolls Royce that came into the shop. It featured the Union Jack on the left accompanied by these words printed in a bold empire style font: "The parts falling off of this car are of the finest British manufacture". In more recent years, I've heard of this bumper sticker appearing on the occasional MG or Mini, but I can't imagine that too many Rolls owners would go for this. However, Roy's customers loved these stickers and kept them on display for years. He wouldn't put them on a less expensive make. Andy Baron From [email protected] Mon Jul 9 10:30:54 2007 From: [email protected] (john robles) Date: Mon Jul 9 10:33:49 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Ever seen this Polyphon phonograph? Message-ID: <[email protected]> I picked this up from a 60-something year old lady in Woodland Hills, CA who said it was her mother's. Any info is greatly appreciated. I know that Polyphon made music boxes in the 1880s-early 1900s, and I know they made records with the same label as on the phonograph lid. Did they make the records to sell the machines, or the machines to sell the records?? Follow the link... John Robles http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/john9ten/Polyphon%20Musik%20phonograph/ From [email protected] Mon Jul 9 11:12:25 2007 From: [email protected] (Robert Plavzic) Date: Mon Jul 9 11:15:02 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Ever seen this Polyphon phonograph? In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> References: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Hi John I think yours is from the "Arena" series of polyphon tabletops The large music box companies saw the writing on the wall fairly early. Polyphon, Symphonion, Kalliope, Lochmann all made an attempt to get into the disk phonograph industry. Polyphons' first phonograph disks are interesting (and unbelievably rare - I've seen more 5" berliners than the coated metal polyphon disks!!) insofar as polyphon took what they knew about = metal disks, and put recording on a layer of celluloid on the one side, and a decoration, the polyphon lady, on the other. They also made a range of machines. Here the 1912 polyphon catalog *as an example * http://www.romfi.com/category.cfm?Category=2%21A%5D%23X%3C8DPWL%2FRL4%2A%3D%5FT%2C%5FANC%0A&CFID=43787&CFTOKEN=65440570 ) Symphonion was very innovative with disk phonograph machines, and made some very beautiful horn phonographs, as well as the desirable "Nickel King" phonograph. Kalliope was a late entry and mainly made suitcase machines, and kalliope records in the 20's. Lochmann, one of the smaller companies, brought out a machine where the horn revolved around the turntable, throwing the sound all around the room - obviously very scientific for its time!!!! Also available as coin-op, probably to make bar patrons extremely dizzy! here a pic of one that seems to be missing its horn, but one can see where the elbow attaches and the horn support at the far end. http://www.romfi.com/category.cfm?search_yes='yes'&category=%3B%21A%5D%23X%3C8DPWX%2CRL0%2A%3A%5E4%28%5E1RBK%20%2AS%2B%5C%5C5J%5C%27%2B%0A regards Rob On 7/9/07, john robles <[email protected]> wrote: > > I picked this up from a 60-something year old lady in Woodland Hills, CA > who said it was her mother's. Any info is greatly appreciated. > I know that Polyphon made music boxes in the 1880s-early 1900s, and I know > they made records with the same label as on the phonograph lid. Did they > make the records to sell the machines, or the machines to sell the records?? > Follow the link... > John Robles > > http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/john9ten/Polyphon%20Musik%20phonograph/ > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > From [email protected] Mon Jul 9 11:11:26 2007 From: [email protected] (Andrew Baron) Date: Mon Jul 9 11:31:32 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Edison microphone Message-ID: <[email protected]> How's this for a knowledgeable seller who's done his homework? http://cgi.ebay.com/Edison-Recorder-for-Parts-Microphone-Speaker- Etc_W0QQitemZ120139499926QQihZ002QQcategoryZ38029QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Andy From [email protected] Mon Jul 9 12:24:38 2007 From: [email protected] (john robles) Date: Mon Jul 9 12:26:03 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Ever seen this Polyphon phonograph? In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Thanks for the info, Rob. I have had a Polyphon music box and am about to buy a Symphonion. I would think that the motor is somewhat similar to the music box motors (i haven't opened it up yet-will post pics when I do). It is a beautiful cabinet, very distinguished. Notice the humped top - did Eldridge Johnson rip this off for the Victrolas?? :-) I bought this machine and a few more to sell at the CAPS show next month, but I am having that old nagging feeling that maybe I should keep this one because it is so nice to look at...but that wouldn't be very business like. I am buying the Symphonion to sell too, and I will probably want to keep it as well...arrgh... John Robert Plavzic <[email protected]> wrote: Hi John I think yours is from the "Arena" series of polyphon tabletops The large music box companies saw the writing on the wall fairly early. Polyphon, Symphonion, Kalliope, Lochmann all made an attempt to get into the disk phonograph industry. Polyphons' first phonograph disks are interesting (and unbelievably rare - I've seen more 5" berliners than the coated metal polyphon disks!!) insofar as polyphon took what they knew about = metal disks, and put recording on a layer of celluloid on the one side, and a decoration, the polyphon lady, on the other. They also made a range of machines. Here the 1912 polyphon catalog *as an example * http://www.romfi.com/category.cfm?Category=2%21A%5D%23X%3C8DPWL%2FRL4%2A%3D%5FT%2C%5FANC%0A&CFID=43787&CFTOKEN=65440570 ) Symphonion was very innovative with disk phonograph machines, and made some very beautiful horn phonographs, as well as the desirable "Nickel King" phonograph. Kalliope was a late entry and mainly made suitcase machines, and kalliope records in the 20's. Lochmann, one of the smaller companies, brought out a machine where the horn revolved around the turntable, throwing the sound all around the room - obviously very scientific for its time!!!! Also available as coin-op, probably to make bar patrons extremely dizzy! here a pic of one that seems to be missing its horn, but one can see where the elbow attaches and the horn support at the far end. http://www.romfi.com/category.cfm?search_yes='yes'&category=%3B%21A%5D%23X%3C8DPWX%2CRL0%2A%3A%5E4%28%5E1RBK%20%2AS%2B%5C%5C5J%5C%27%2B%0A regards Rob On 7/9/07, john robles wrote: > > I picked this up from a 60-something year old lady in Woodland Hills, CA > who said it was her mother's. Any info is greatly appreciated. > I know that Polyphon made music boxes in the 1880s-early 1900s, and I know > they made records with the same label as on the phonograph lid. Did they > make the records to sell the machines, or the machines to sell the records?? > Follow the link... > John Robles > > http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/john9ten/Polyphon%20Musik%20phonograph/ > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
