Beltona Gramophone Cabinet
Circa 1930’s
A wind-up gramophone cabinet dating from 1930 made by Beltona Records and called ‘The Sonia’. It is made of solid oak with ply panels in the Jacobean style. It is noted to be fitted with the company’s “multone interior amplifier” which gave the cabinet “great power and exquisite tone”.
The cabinet cost £12 in 1930 which in today’s money is approximately £1000. Wind-up gramophone cabinets were popular in the 1920s and 1930s and used a hand-cranked spring motor to play 78rpm records.
The gramophone was invented in the late 1880s by Emile Berliner and enabled the modern record industry to flourish with companies including The Gramophone Company and Beltona Records to mass-produce records and gramophones.
The Beltona Records was a British record label established in 1922 specialising in Scottish and Irish Music. It was known for specializing in Celtic folk, bagpipes, and country dance music. The label released hundreds of 78 rpm records and later 45 rpm discs until 1974.
The two records both date from the early 1930s and were sold by Hedley V. Norfolk, a gramophone and record shop situated along Fairfield Road, Braintree. Hedley Victor Norfolk ran a successful shop selling high-end portable gramophones and records produced by Columbia Record Company and His’ Master’s Voice, later known as HMV. Hedley was also a well-known organist in Braintree.
Both records were produced by His Master’s Voice, a brand used by The Gramophone Company in the UK since the early 1900s. By the 1930s it had become a prominent gramophone and record retailer as well as a record label releasing classical, dance, jazz and popular music.
