Phillbrook & Paine Salmon Reel Altered ?

[Ray Hencken]

Pictured is a salmon reel which may be an altered Phillbrook & Paine reel. The bearing cover on the backplate as well as the positions of the rivets for the pawl and spring are what would be found on the P&P reel. The frame and foot are nickle silver however the pillars and screws are brass. The crank (handle and knob) is an obvious replacement. The altered nickle silver foot has been somewhat crudely soldered to the bottom pillars. The reel is 4 in. measured from pillar to pillar, the spool width is 1 1/4 in. I can find no evidence that the plates were ever marbelized although this reel exhibits considerable wear. Any ideas or insight about this reel?

[john elder]

Look inside! Maybe marbelized??

[Eric J]

A home shop attempt to copy a P&P?
If it was a foreign forgery attempt like the Moscrop’s there would likely be more floating around.
Or someone tried to salvage the original many years ago after a mishap?

[Ray Hencken]

Look inside! Maybe marbelized??

Here are pictures of the inside of the front plate, the back plate, and both sides of the spool. There is no hint of red/orange on the reel. I remember a P&P 3 in diameter trout reel being sold at Lang's 2008 auction that had black side plates.

[Ray Hencken]

A home shop attempt to copy a P&P?
If it was a foreign forgery attempt like the Moscrop’s there would likely be more floating around.
Or someone tried to salvage the original many years ago after a mishap?

I am quite sure that it is not a "home shop copy" or a foreign copy. The nickle silver front and back plate frames as well as the hard rubber in each appear to be P&P particularly because of the bearing cover. The brass pillars and screws are questionable and the handle/crank and its knob are obviously crude replacements.
Why would anyone replace all the pillars and screws?

[Eric J]

From the photos as best as I can see (and I may be wrong) the side plates do not look smoothly cast as the original P&P which were moulded in polished cast iron dies. These look more bumpy like they were cast from molds made from a P&P reel side plate. I don’t think the P&P reels were made of hard rubber, but a more knowledgeable collector here would know for sure if any were.
Does the reel turn smoothly?

[RonG]

Here's a Philbrook & Paine Salmon reel photos for reference.

[reelsmith.]

.
My guess is someone came across plates and a spool and then made the rest.

Dean.

[Ray Hencken]

.
My guess is someone came across plates and a spool and then made the rest.

Dean.

I think that Dean's evaluation is the most probable.
I think that the key characteristic identifying the plates as P&P is the rear bearing cover. I don't know of any reels, other than P&P made reels including 1st model Leonard bimetals, that have that bearing cover. Also, there is at least one P&P trout reel with all black side plates which was sold at Lang's auction November 2008, page 208, item 1382.