Rexophone / Rexonola / Rexoport
Jackson & MacDonald
1906: Jackson & MacDonald Co., Sydney, acquired a jobber’s franchise for the Edison’s Pioneer Phonographs. From these humble beginnings grew the largest ‘talking machine’ manufacturing business in the Commonwealth – with production estimated to exceed 180,000 units between 1912 and 1929. The gramophones were sold under the following names: Rexophone (External horn machines), Rexonola (Cabinet models), and Rexoport (small portable models).
Sydney Morning Herald, December 1906
It was not until 1911 when copyrights had expired that Jackson & MacDonald were able to start making their own gramophones. They basically designed cabinets and fitted then with motors, horns and metal fixtures, all imported from Europe. By now the gramophone had taken over sales from Edison’s obsolete phonograph. .
1911: Rexophones were external horn models and an advert (left) from September 1911 in Le Courrier Australien shows a very ‘high-end’ model.
1912: Here is an advert (right) from November 1912 showing six different models. By 1915 tastes had changed and the external horn gramophones were considered “vulgar”, with the horns now hidden in cabinets.
Detailed site on the many cabinet models Rexonola
These are the Rexophone models marketed between 1911 and 1915: Bute, Dover, Kent, the York and Richmond. Finally, the ‘Syd’ – a small internal horn model.
1915-1929: Rexonola made a huge variety of cabinet models, selling them from their own store as well as through large department stores, music parlours and salons throughout Australia and New Zealand. By the mid 1930s, they were gone!
