Victrola serial plates: when was the serial/suffix applied ?

[De Soto Frank]

Was the plate completely stamped and applied to a completed machine, or was the unstamped plate affixed to the cabinet, and the numbers / suffix letter stamped-on after the machine was built and had all its hardware installed?

(Did they build the machine to match the plate, or stamp the plate to match the finished machine? )


The reason I ask, is that my 1910 XVI s/n 19362 has two suffix letters: "B" and "C", one stamped over the other...

According to Paul Edie's Victor-Victrola site & database, the "B" suffix indicated the deletion of the carved frieze below the lid lip, and the "C" suffix indicated a change to the new "Tab Brake" from the older "Bullet Brake".

My machine is completely original, and is definitely a "B" frieze-delete, but it retains the Bullet Brake and there is no evidence of hardware having been swapped-out for a different type...


I'm wondering where the "C" came from... was this supposed to be completed as a "C" machine with tab brake, but wound-up being fitted with a bullet-brake and overstamped with "B", or did it start out as a "B" machine that was supposed to be updated, and never got its new style brake ?

I know that this is really picayune, but I figured someone here might just know the answer...

( Note: I corrected the model number - machine in question is a 16th. )

[Starkton]

I don't know an answer to your interesting inquiry, but maybe the following helps:

Deutsche Grammophon A.G. did not introduce plates, at least until 1914, the period I am interested in. Instead the machines got production numbers stamped in the case, appended with the initial "Rev. K" or "Rev. O", or similar. I am confident that "Rev." is the abbreviation for "Revision", which suggests that the number was stamped in during the final check.