Maxonol "Model A" Gramophone
The Australian made Maxonola gramophone was first marketed in1923. Where as most cabinet gramophones of the time had enclosed the amplifying horn below the turntable. The Maxonola’s unique feature was that the horn was above the turntable, much like an external horn gramophone of the 1910’s.
There were several reasons for enclosing the horn, scientific and aesthetics. By the 1920’s the exterior horn was considered ‘vulgar’ and designers rushed to build gramophones in cabinets so they could pose as furniture. The scientific reason was that enclosing the horn in a wooden box enhanced the bass frequencies and generally improving fidelity.
The story of the Maxonola is typical of many small local gramophone manufacturers in the 1920’s. They lasted a few years but then vanished leaving only a secondhand market where the few surviving examples have passed down to modern day collectors.
The company seems to had two lives. One as a struggling Maxonola in 1923-4 and a change to Maxonol with a fresh burst of heavy advertising and improvements in 1925. It was gone by late 1926.
This Maxonola is a ‘Model A Maxonol’. The old stock decal clearly says Maxonola with the last ‘a’ cut out. The soundbox clearly says ‘Maxonol’.
It has been re-motored by a previous owner with a different Swiss motor, leaving extra holes in the case. I have replaced it with a Swiss motor of the time that fit’s the original holes.
The soundbox has been rebuilt and new rubber gaskets added in an attempt to make it sound like it would have done when new.
There seems to be several variants of the original huge Sideboard models. Two versions of the smaller sideboard and a portable.
Here is a fascinating cinema advertising video on the NFSA website:
Maxonol Gramophone: Buy a Good Gramophone and Keep Her at Home (1925)
https://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/maxonol-gramophone/clip1/
Aimed at parents of a girl who “Is always out”!
The video features several Maxonol models. Note the large sideboard model with a built in radio. A compression driver (small speaker) is added to the tonearm so the radio can be amplified through the gramophone horn. The video boasts it can play any type of record, suggesting an Edison vertical reproducer attachment. It even shows the workshop where the cabinets are being made.
Here is a Youtube video of it playing a Greek song.
MAXONOL c.1925
| Model | Tonearm | Motor | Soundbox | Horn | Cabinet | Price | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maxonol Model A | Generic Swiss, mounted upside down | Thorens 2 spring motor | Generic Swiss with mica diaphragm marked Maxonol | Plywood horn above the tonearm | Maple H-55” x W-22”x D-22” | 35 guineas | c.1925 |
A timeline of the Maxonola / Maxanol.
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Feb 8th 1923: The very first advertisement for a “Maxonola” appeared in, The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday February 8th 1923. It simply mentions the Maxonola and there are no pictures.
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Oct 7th 1923: The first pictured ad for the Maxonola appears in The Newcastle Sun on Wednesday, October 7th 1923. It pictures a huge cabinet with a gramophone built into the right hand side with a horn above it behind some small doors. The company claiming sole agents in Newcastle is BOOTH’S.
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Oct 27th 1923: Another ad with a slightly different design but basically the same large cabinet.
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Dec 1st 1923: Yet another large cabinet with a slightly different design.
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Feb 6th 1924: All of a sudden a new ad appears in The Brisbane Courier on February 6th 1924. The new company is Bonnie New Furnishings and now it is advertised as “The Magnificent Maxonola Diamond Disc Talking Machine, needle attachment and 30 records. This would suggest that the model could, with the use of a needle attachment now also play Edison Diamond Disc records which were vertically cut rather than laterally cut, as most other 78rpm records.
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The Maxonola then disappears except for individuals selling secondhand ones in small personal ads which continued into the 1930’s.
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Nov 30th 1924: The Maxonola makes a brief appearance in The Maitland Daily Mercury where McDonald Bros. claim “We have been fortunate in procuring the District Agency for The ‘MAXONOLA,’ which is different to any other Phonograph offered to the public. We are showing one embodied in a Sideboard, it is of Polished Maple and splendid value at £40. We also have a Portable Model at £6/6/0, and to hear it will convince that it is of the finest tone yet produced in a Small Model.” The very first mention of a portable model. Perhaps, McDonald Bros. were not so fortunate after all as this is the last mention of the Maxonola.
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Feb 20th 1925: A tiny ad appears in The Sydney Morning Herald simply says “What is a Maxonol! See Saturday’s paper”
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Feb 22nd 1925: The Maxonola is back but now it’s the MAXONOL. The adverts are now really gutsy “Absolutely the best toned Phonograph in the world” “THE HUMAN VOICE DIVINE”. The new company is called ‘Maxonol Coy’ and the Maxonol is advertised intensively throughout 1925 in major papers and magazines.
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Nov 15th 1925: A new smaller version is released.
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Mar 1st1926: New fancy ad in the ‘TRIAD’. It advertised the same huge sideboard model now the ‘Model B’ but it also advertised an intriguing portable model.
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March 15th 1926: “MAXONOL LIMITED” registered 8.3.26. published in ‘Duns Gazette’. Details in publication.
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May 1st 1926: The ‘Model A’ advertised in the ‘TRIAD’
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Sept 1st 1926: A drawn illustration of a Maxonol is adverised in the ‘Triad” but now the company has become limited. “MAXONOL” LTD.
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Oct 27th 1926: The Maxonol name is used for the last time and it is now selling “Player Pianos”.
It was inevitable, and Maxonola Ltd, soon went bust and now being a limited company, no individual would have taken the fall.
The gramophone business would have been tough in the mid 1920’s. Shiploads of gramophone parts were being imported into Australia and the competition to assemble them in locally made cabinets, market them and then make a profit must have, at first, seemed like a good idea. But competing against the established exporters from America and Europe, (Edison, Victor, HMV, Pathe, Brunswick, Sonora and Aeolian-Vocalion, just to name some of the ‘Big Guys’.) who flooded the Australian market with their unsold, slighted outdated models made abroad, must have been daunting for the local smaller companies, who relied on the same companies from abroad for all of their hardware.
Not many survived, It’s is surprising and quite alarming how many small companies still tried. There were literally dozens of Australian companies making a whole range of locally made gramophones with imported parts.
The most successful being Rexonola. Their success mainly due to being marketed through large department stores throughout Australian cities. Rexonola even had some of theirs parts made in Europe, stamped with the Rexonola name.
