My grandfather and his friends used to gather in the front room in Cavendish Road, Rotherham, smoke their pipes furiously and get all excited about the latest version of Sibelius' second symphony on the most modern set of 78s.  This was their Gramophone Society.  Stereo for them was a fantasy that would arrive twelve years later on the long playing record.  The Stereo Society is my fantasy.

Bertram Thorne was a capable amateur carpenter, often 'goin' up to t'attic t'mek a mess'.  Marquetry is made by gluing small, contrasting pieces of wood together to make a picture.  Shown here slightly over life-size (which is about 5"x2") is a piece he made around 1948, depicting his acoustic horn gramophone in 'the front room'.  It hung there for many years, just to the side of the tiled fireplace you can see on the left, after the gramophone was replaced by a 'hi-fi' and then by a 'stereo'.

- Mike Thorne.

It looks nice on the wall as a 10"x8" printout, so we offer it as a 1.6Mb download

You'll find other assorted media and music downloads in our extensive Downloads section.

Thorne at the Stereo Society (selected links):
to Thorne's home page (all links)
to Thorne's production commentaries
to Thorne's image gallery

to The Contessa's Party CD page
to The Contessa's Party CD artwork page
to the ladies at The Contessa's Party first page
to the rules of The Contessa's Party first page
to the stories behind The Contessa's Party

to the Sprawl CD page

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