Corner Victrola

[chunnybh]

Thoughts on this corner Victrola please.

[Phono-Phan]

Pretty sure this isn't a Victor Victrola product.

[Lucius1958]

Never seen anything like it: certainly not in LFTD, anyway. Is there an ID plate anywhere?

Some bits seem more like HMV; but it's got a VTMCo decal. Deco fantasy piece, maybe?

- Bill

[gramophone-georg]

I think it's a custom, and a very nice one. I've never seen any Victrola with a prop rod for a lid, and the turntable felt and arm say "HMV" to me. That said, the attention to detail is astounding. I'd buy it!

[AZ*]

Fancy Frankenphone. Not a Victor product.

[JeffR1]

Someone sure went to a lot of bother if it is a Frankenphone.
Even the custom wedge shaped Victrola decal in the record cupboard.

I would like to see the horn inside.

[Lah Ca]

Whatever it is it is a piece of strangely beautiful, late 20s or early 30s Art Deco / Streamline Moderne craftsmanship.

One of the problems, I suspect, with higher-end items of this period is that they were often bespoke. Assembly line production had been in existence for no more than two decades. It tended to produce uniform product. At the higher end of things, bespoke-manufacturing in workshops still thrived, although its days were numbered. High-end cars were often purchased bare-bones and taken to bespoke coach-builders. High-end furniture was bespoke. Even books could still be purchased unbound to be taken to a bespoke book binders. Clothing, shoes, jewellery, the middle class now bought off the rack. The rich did not.

The Aeolian-Vocalian catalogue of 1915 suggests that discerning clients might contact the company about their higher-end models, for which no prices are listed - of course not - how gauche!

"I am wealthy, and this is what I want."

"Yes, sir!"

If it is a Victrola, it may well be the only one of its kind. Clues might be found by examining the motor and the arm more closely, perhaps.

[edisonplayer]

I've heard of the Davis corner phonograph.But this is certainly an odd bird!edisonplayer

[OrthoFan]

Fancy Frankenphone. Not a Victor product.

Agree totally and I think it was made to deceive. I see a pre-1925 goose neck style tonearm--not necessarily a Victor tonearm--combined with a post-1930 reproducer--I've seen that before on some post-merger UK portables; an Orthophonic era transfer under the lid coupled with a second "Victrola" banner in the record storage compartment screaming "I AM A VICTROLA". The cabinet style looks more mid-1930s--long after RCA acquired Victor and stopped production of acoustic cabinet models--and it's coated with a modern looking lacquer finish (of the type used by the "Bombay Company" which obscures the wood grain.) Then there's the odd placement of the crank hole, the lid lock ....

Possibly, it's a converted & refinished corner radio or gramophone cabinet? If it's totally new-build, it does show some signs of craftsmanship, but again, it's nothing that came from the Victor factory.

OF

[Hoodoo]

I agree that it was probably not factory built, what with the 1930s styling combined with the 1920s, or even teens tonearm, but I do like it a lot.