This
gramophone belongs to someone whose father took it as part of
just a few possessions he managed to save when the British vacated Burma as the Japanese army
advanced. For years nothing was done with it. When it was decided to restore it,
all the timber was riddled with woodworm and beyond repair.
Fortunately
some mahogany ply was still available of exactly the same thickness of the
original. The original logo was lifted out of the box after saturating it with
resin to fill the cavities made by the woodworm and embedded in the new
lid. All parts were cleaned and taken to an electro plating company to be
replated. The motor was cleaned and serviced. When making the new box all the
old factory identifications and stamped serial numbers were transferred exactly
to the same positions on the new case. The deep maroon and black lacquer
was faithfully duplicated.
The
end result was a gramophone which looked like it would have done on the day it was
bought.
The
owner still had many 78 rpm records and the gramophone was used on the day of her
daughter’s wedding. The bride was worried that the photographer seemed to be more
intrigued with the gramophone than taking wedding photos.
All images copyright © to acw ten broek
