Gabriel Gössel and I were friends in collection. We met for the first time in November 1997 in the Musica mechanica fair in Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany. Shortly after that, in Spring 1998 my life partner and I paid a visit to him in Prague. We could see there his beautiful collection of gramophone needles tins. At that time Gabriel had just published the calendar 1998 with pictures of his collection. Six other calendars followed this first one, with pictures of the collections of gramophone needles tins or records of fellow collectors.
From the time we met we spent time in passionate discusions about gramophone needles tins, swapping them, sharing discoveries and getting jealous of eachother when the other had caught « the » tin on the fair.., So many mails travelled between Prague and Vevey during these years ! One of our main discussion theme was his love for the tins of the label Sem designed for the firm of the family Semler in Pilsen, to the story of which he finally dedicated a book in 2018 (see my Sem page here).
The needles tins were one of his numerous interests : Gabriel Gössel was a keen and renowned connoisseur of story of Czech music and Czech sound industry.
Gabriel had a witty and caustic humour combined to a true kindness. This real gentleman passed at the beginning of April 2020. I miss him.
Published May 2nd, 2020
