As mentioned, Pathe began business as an agent, importing and selling Phonographs & Graphophones. Their 1898 cartalog still shows the Edison & Graphophone products that they were selling. It must have occurred to the Pathe brothers, as the import business flourished, that there was more money to be made in actually manufacturing their own line of machines. The Pathe Graphophone is mechanically a direct copy of a Graphophone AT though with a Pathe made case. It would appear that the motor was a Graphophone AT motor, while the upper works were cast in an inferior pot-metal, that in most of these models that have survived, the upper works are distorted and unplayable.
More pictures to follow.
If the Pathe Graphophone, AT copy is puzzling, Pathe also sold a modified AT Graphophone adapted with the Pathe style horn guide mechanism.
Picture to follow
Thus looking at the various models that Pathe developed over theit decade of Phonograph manufacture, the influence of the Graphophone AT & Graphophone Eagle are quite evident.
Crane support visible to the left woth start/stop lever & speed controler at the front. Under the logo is written: Grand Prize Universal Exposition 1900
For the England market the Green Gauloise was packaged in a wood covered with faux leather. The cover was connected to the base by 2 clasps at either side.
The "Chante-Clair" was produced 1904 by Pathé Frères, and although it only has Pathe markings on the metalwork, it could have been produced especially for the French mail order company J.Girard et Cie.
The „Chante-Clair“ can only play cylinders of the “Inter” site, and being equipped with the large mandrel, does not allow the playing of standard size cylinders. Characteristic is the winding-key. The diameter of the horn measures 12". The the absence of a feed screw makes it impossible to record with this machine.
Mechanically similar ro the Chante-Claire, the Coquet is easily identified by its tramsfers on the case and lid.