Russian 'Copy' of the
Thorens Excelda
This machine was picked up by Horst Wegler in
Europe. The pictures were taken by Betty Pratt in October,
2009. Check it out against mine. Pretty darned close copy.
<>
A friend translates as follows:
I translated the large red words on the label as "Moscow
Pathéphonic Factory", but the only bit that I could get in the
small white and gold lettering is the first word, "Ministry" The next
word, "Mestnoi", possibly makes it mean something like Ministry of
Industry(?), and I can guess at the last bit which is glared out,
RCFCR. These are the transliterated letters RSFSR, which possibly
stands for an early name of the Soviet Union. We know the Soviet Union
as an acronym which we read as CCCP, but which is Cyrillic for SSSR
(Union [Soyuz] of Soviet Socialist Republics). At a wild guess, RCFCR
might mean something like Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist
Republics.
Compare (this time Russian photo by Arthur Zimmerman):
Back