EXPERT All-Range C.1935

This Expert All-Range was owned by the 7th Earl of Harewood, George Henry Hubert Lascelles.

The Earl’s musical credentials are impressive, dwarfed amongst them, “He was chairman of Historic Masters, an unusual vinyl record label dedicated to high quality issues of rare historic 78 rpm recordings of opera singers”; so it is quite apt that he should have owned one of the finest acoustic gramophones ever commercially produced.

Unfortunately, the gramophone is currently only for display and does not work. The motor needs repairs and the soundbox may need rebuilding. The two examples I have seem have had the same damage to the horn. The diagonal brace rod, which is meant to help support the horn, has punctured through the paper horn. All quite easy repairs, and I have encouraged the curators at Harewood House to have these repairs done, so that the beast can be played and perhaps even used for concerts.

The gramophone is on display in one of the smaller dining rooms, although it belongs in the stunning carpeted music room. The acoustics in the music room would be the perfect surroundings to hear this machine at its very best. A key was found with the gramophone that opens the two corner record cabinets in the music room; suggesting that is where the gramophone was located when it was last being used.

Details: Expert All-Range with 36” diameter horn.

• Sits on a matching Expert cabinet with drawer.
• All the fittings and pipework are identical in size to the Expert Senior, at least on this example.
• Unique support brace attached to the rear of the case, suggesting a different cast. Which one came first?
• Fitted with an electric “Connoisseur motor, manufactured by A. R. Sugden in 1948”. It has a vertical idler wheel to rotate the turntable. Thanks to “physicist” on TTMF for identifying the motor.
• Expert 4-spring soundbox in its original box.
• The cabinet drawer contents are pictured below. A pair of Davey bamboo cutters, Davey Dressing tube, Davey Rollright, a BCN Fibre Needle Sharpener and accessories, a Pathe reproducer for playing vertical cut records and a variety of fibre and steel needles.
• Unusual item is the “Ultra- Paradox” counterweight device with a “Lifebelt” and printed instructions.

Queries:

• Could be an early Expert Senior with unique but primitive back bracket brace and the horn upgrade came later?
• Could the motor also be a later upgrade?

The 7th Earl of Harewood:

• Lord Harewood was the eldest grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary, nephew of both King Edward VIII and King George VI and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
• He was director of the Royal Opera House, chairman of the board of the English National Opera (ENO), managing director of the English National Opera North, governor of the BBC and president of the British Board of Film Classification.
• During the war he was “wounded and captured at Monte Corno on 18 June 1944, the anniversary of both his father's injury in the First World War and the Battle of Waterloo, in which his great-great-grandfather was injured.” He was held as a prisoner of war in Colditz until May 1945.
• He married Marion Stein, a concert pianist. “Benjamin Britten, a friend of the Stein family, composed an anthem, "Amo Ergo Sum", for the wedding ceremony”. They divorced in 1967, after the earl's mistress, Patricia "Bambi" Tuckwell - an Australian violinist and model, bore him a son. They married abroad and she became “The Dowager Countess of Harewood”. Marion Stein went on to marry politician Jeremy Thorpe and supported him throughout that fiasco.
• “His other interests included football: he served as president of Leeds United Football Club from 1961 until his death and was president of the Football Association from 1963 to 1972. He died on 11 July 2011, aged 88.”
• An interesting off shoot: Channel 5 documentary. Presenter/actor David Harewood has a conversation with The Earl of Harewood, whose ancestors enslaved his four-time great-grandparents. It documents how slavery paid for the building of Harewood House. The Lascelles Slavery Archive is set up in partnership with Harewood House Trust.
• The 8th Earl: “The big lesson is to be open and honest about every aspect of your history. People say, do you feel guilty? I say, how can I? It was more than 150 years ago!” says Lascelles. “You’re not responsible but you’re accountable. White liberal guilt is not terribly helpful; nor is pretending there’s not a problem.”