Frankenphones
Like Frankenstein, a "Frankenphone" is a gramophone / phonograph mashed together from a mixture of original and home made parts. It can also be pieces of furniture, like side-tables that have been converted into a fantasy standing machine, an original tabletop machine desecrated into a horn machine, or even an antique cast iron kitchen scale that becomes a fantasy music player.
The largest generality about a frankenphone is that:
A music machine original in its time, never looked like the concoction that is a frankenphone. As the aim is often to deceive, the seller may mix and match some original low quality badly restored machines with frankenphones and crapophones.
Here a range of some original, some not
Frankenphones - Various examples (not exhaustive)
so this "horn gramophone" began life as an HMV tabletop machine. The doors have been removed and covered with a piece of wood matching the cabinet and a back bracket and gold resprayed horn added.
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same again
RCA Victor Graphonole Thomas Alba de Edison - apart from the fake "Victor" nameplate mixing identities with Edison and Graphophone, we have here a very bad excuse of a Frankenphone. Sometimes Frankenphones have real victor nameplates - just that the model type corresponds with some other model, usualy a cabinet or tabletop style.
If you are looking at a Victor phonograph this is the resource you need to consult. It has all the types of Victors and Victrolas. Victor made a very small amount of differen horn machines.
The Victor-Victrola Page
Here the cabinet is OK, the back bracket and arm are from the local blacksmith and the horn - someones tuba has been sacrificed!
Here we have a serious delinquency. The wood cabinet is from a fairly rare disc graphophone. The motor from an HMV cabinet or tabletop machine, and the bracket (decades more modern than the cabinet), arm and horn from an indian crapophone. The original bracket for this machine was unique to this machine.
If the machine had been left original - presumably with faults, it would have had a value. Now with all the non correct pieces and the extraneous additional holes ruining the cabinet, its value is reduced to negligable.
Maybe not a true Frankenphone, but this started life as a very good quality, desirable cabinet Victrola, that has lost its lower meter of cabinet.
This may be a fun item to build from old kitchen equipment by a very skilled engineer. However one day it may land on the market & be confused, in decades to come, as a rare early machine.
Here a cabinet gramophone has been changed into a "horn" machine by transplanting the motor and turntable and tone arm onto the lid. No doubt some plumbing has been added to connect to the home made horn attachment.
Bedside tables and plant stands are also so converted.
Columbia Phonographic Co., BH, 1906, 78 rpm Gramophone player - £2,702.50 or Best Offer
Where to start with this mess:
The cabinet is from a ca early 1900's disc Graphophone, probably a travelling arm machine (so could have been quite desirable). It has had all the important pieces removed. The motor has been replaced with a ca late 20's portable columbia motor - very obvious to deduce from the winding handle. The turntable is obviously over 20 years more modern than the cabinet. Extra holes have been drilled in the cabinet, further devaluing it. The back bracket is possibly a German / Swiss original, but the tone arm is from a cheap suitcase machine. The horn elbow is a Gramophone company piece while the horn is a generic pressed steel model. Brake and speed control could be anything, but not Graphophone.
Value: definitely far far under the asking price, just for spares or gimmic.
Metalwork seems ok, but the cabinet .........
Borderline Crapophone. portable gramophone motor, incorrect tone arm - wood is modern stuff one could find in a diy store.
Here a lid from a Pathe Reflex turned into a gramophone base by addition of a generic motor, Pathe bracket, home made arm, and very badly repainted horn.
This is an amalgamation of a series of parts that were never meant to be together: the arm is from a suitcase gramophone, and the person who created this did not even bother to remove the trigger bar for the automatic brake. Maybe it acts now as a holder for a marshmallow? Random metal plaques on the side of a machine should always raise suspicion of motor changes. Here the cabinet - the only really original (or rather once original), seems to have had at least 3 different motors. The horn also seems to be of indian origin.
This is a particular perfide example, as one has ruined a very desirable Gramophone / Victor Monarch Gramophone base by adding a cheap 1950's portable suitcase gramophone motor - see the angled winder - meaning a lot of extraneous holes in the cabinet, as well as a newly made horn support and a new horn. The base alone untouched would possibly be worth more than this current disaster of a concoction!
Another very sketchy creation. Not original, metal tag to somehow prove "originality"
47638 Nordrhein-Westfalen - Straelen
Grammophon aktiv Functionert Orginel
Schauen Sie sich die Anzeige an.
Grammophone in 5683 BZ, Niederlande. WhatsApp 0031619006312
Where do we start - comments in red
Marcis M Beschreibung
Antiker Senior Monarch Grammophon – Voll funktionsfähig
Zum Verkauf steht ein originaler, voll funktionsfähiger Senior Monarch Grammophon aus der frühen 1900er-Jahre.
Ein echtes Sammlerstück mit edlem Holzgehäuse und großem Holzhorn.
Zustand: Sehr gut, technisch geprüft und spielbereit
Hersteller: Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. – "Exhibition" Schalldose
Besonderheiten:
Original-Holzhorn in Top-Zustand
Kurbelantrieb voll intakt
Klangkörper mit reich verziertem Säulen-Design
Kein Nachbau – 100 % authentisch
Ein Meisterwerk der Klanggeschichte – ideal für Sammler und
Liebhaber!
Description
Antique Senior Monarch Gramophone – Fully Functional doubtful: The case style is not found in any comtemporaty literature / the style 32 motor was only produced after 1921. Long after production of "Senior Manarchs" ceased
A true collector's item with a fine wooden case and large wooden horn. Not if its a frankenphone!
Condition: Very good, technically tested, and ready to play.
Manufacturer: Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. – "Exhibition"
sound box. Yes, the soundbox is Exhibition
Special Features:
Original wooden horn in excellent condition. Have a close look at the horn - seems like 50% interior veneer replaced.
Crank mechanism fully intact. but from era 1921 to 1940's, thus incorrect for the era this machine is trying to emulate. Speed control & brake also not originally HMV of this period
Sound box with richly decorated column design.
Not a replica – 100% authentic. mish-mash
of parts from different era's with newer replacements.
Have a look at the last picture - Phillips screws !! a minority of the
parts are original to what this Grammophon is trying to be.
A masterpiece of sound history – ideal for collectors and enthusiasts! only if it was original
site under construction!
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