Help with a value RCA custom

[Ksterne]

Hi everyone. New to the site. I’m helping my brother clear out a huge storage facility that he’s been filling for decades. He has this RCA victor machine that seems to me like it’s had a handmade box built/modified for RCA hardware. I’m trying to figure out its age and value wand would appreciate any help. It works great including the speed controller. Thanks in advance!

[Ksterne]

Thought i had attached more pics in my original post.

[mrrgstuff]

I'm certainly no expert on this, but a few observations from the photos:

Motor looks to be a 4 spring Victor/HMV type. If its marked 34, then HMV.
Held on by hex nuts which I think are later than the motor.
Speed control looks like its an Victor/HMV one also, though not necessarily from same machine.
Brake doesn't look to be from same machine as speed control.
Tonearm, I guess is an upside down goose neck type from a table top hornless machine. Looks like an S bend has been grafted on to bring the soundbox back to the correct side.
Lots of signs of holes/modifications to case so it has developed over the years.
Back bracket has signs of rust so not a later aluminium copy

I'm sure people with more experience will be able to identify parts more positively, but overall, a machine made up from parts of several other machines.

Parts will date from around 1920s (not sure about horn), but machine could have put together much more recently than that.

[OrthoFan]

Agreed, it looks to be assembled from a variety of spare parts, and the gooseneck style tonearm has been modified with an extension. From what I can tell, the sound box or reproducer, viewed from its side, seems to be from a circa late 1920s/early 1930s type gramophone. The badly repainted horn and horn elbow may be authentic to an earlier period.

The case, itself, seems relatively new--perhaps the past few decades judging by the modern looking (lacquer?) finish. Keep in mind, imitation/reproduction gramophones (often called crap-o-phones) have been around for the past 30 years, or more, so it's often hard to tell when the cases were made.

Don't know where "RCA" figures into this. RCA (Radio Corporation of America) acquired the Victor Talking Machine company in 1929, long after the "outside horn" talking machine was produced in the US. See -- http://www.victor-victrola.com/Started2.htm It's certainly not a custom-built product of the Victor Talking Machine Company, or it's UK based "sister" company, The Gramophone Company.

It terms of value, I'd say maybe one or two hundred for the parts, if they're in good condition.

OrthoFan

[Garret]

Value to a serious collector: $50 for the motor and speed control. Max. The rest is junk.

[mrrgstuff]

Value to a serious collector: $50 for the motor and speed control. Max. The rest is junk.

I'd certainly agree the motor is the most valuable part.

I'm not a serious collector, but do like playing around with old junk, so for me there is value in some of the other parts, like the horn, even if the paint job is less than original

As the machine is complete and working, depending where you are, it may make more money being sold as a complete machine for someone who liked the look of it and maybe weren't too fussed about the originality.