Live Auction 8842Mechanical Music and Technical Apparatus
A Cascade II gramophone
Lot 85

A Cascade II gramophone

Price Realised

GBP 998

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A Cascade II gramophone
by W.J.Bond & Sons, Harlesden, with long papier-mâché horn emerging from the side of the stained beech cabinet, Expert four-spring soundbox on swan-neck tone-arm, later three-speed electric turntable, removable frieze panel, storage cupboard below, pedestal support for horn and accessories including speed tester, fibre needles and cutter, thorn sharpener and Wilson alignment protractor -- the cabinet 39in. (99cm.) high, the horn projecting 65¼ (166cm.) x 28¾in. (73cm.) diam.

Specialist note

The Cascade was the cheapest of the three papier-mâché horned gramophones of the early 1930s, and also in one sense the purest, in that the horn incorporates no bends. In the Cascade I, this inconvenient but acoustically ideal shape was disguised in a sideboard, but the II (and, even more so the III, with its 9-foot horn) must surely be the ultimate proof that fitness for purpose does not necessarily go hand in hand with beauty.