Mystery Victor 6 Record Cabinet

[jmad7474]

I may be way off base here, but...could it be an Indonesian reproduction? Those feet and the finish look a lot like the Indonesian pieces that flooded antique stores back in the 1990s/early 2000s. I have a few in my house, in fact, and although they varied, some of them really were very good. The carving is what gives me paws--er, pause; it's not as clean and distinct as I would expect in a true vintage piece, but a lot of the Indonesian ones were something like that. The 12" sized dividers would suggest the possibility it was made for LPs "in the style of" a cabinet that was made for 78s.

Thanks for sharing! I was just in elementary school during that time period, so I know nothing about modern Indonesian record cabinets other than them being mentioned as a brief footnotes in collector's guides. As he previously mentioned, the seller I purchased this from thinks it is an original Chicago Talking Machine Company cabinet and it has plenty of design features to support that. However, even if it is a modern-made cabinet, it is by far the most useful, attractive and well-built one I have ever seen and of course matches the phonograph to an outstanding degree.

PS: My apologies to Rene for not reading the linked article about his Cabinet That Matches in full before posting - I incorrectly assumed his cabinet was a Herzog since it shares a similar but not identical design.

[Garret]

I've never seen a recent piece from Asia that looked that nice. Moreover, if Raphael sold it to you, for the price that it cost, I would assume someone did their homework?

All the same I would like to see better photos of the carvings, knobs, and also a picture of the underside.

Garret

[Raphael]

Jason,

I’m sorry to have missed you at the EXPO. I had to leave early due to a problem back home and left early on Sunday morning.

I checked my files and with the restorer who sold me the cabinet. He’s been in the phonograph business for about 50 years and did not know the cabinet’s original maker.

Shawn O’Rourke is on vacation at the moment, he might know. I’ll check with him when he gets back.

Raphael

[jmad7474]

I've never seen a recent piece from Asia that looked that nice. Moreover, if Raphael sold it to you, for the price that it cost, I would assume someone did their homework?

All the same I would like to see better photos of the carvings, knobs, and also a picture of the underside.

Garret

Thanks for your input Garret - I feel a bit of additional information might help here. When I bought the cabinet and phonograph from Raphael, I did not inquire at that time about the cabinetmaker because I was 99.9% sure I'd either locate a maker's mark somewhere on it when it arrived, or at least would be able to find another example of it online. However, once I realized that no other example of this cabinet could be found online and there is no maker's mark on it, I decided to try my luck here on TMF. Since I have already filled the cabinet with 100+ fragile 78 rpm records and leveled all four corners (not to mention it's frickin' HEAVY even when totally empty!), I concur with Raphael that it's best to see if Shawn O'Rourke can determine the cabinetmaker when he returns from vacation. If he can't determine it from the photos I already took, I'll definitely consider unloading the records/removing the phonograph from the cabinet and uploading your requested extra photos at that time. I just don't want to have to unload everything if I don't absolutely have to!

[gramophone-georg]

Jason, I personally wouldn't care if that cabinet was made last week in Cambodia or Viet Nam... it's a total babe and goes with the 6 perfectly!

[Raphael]

I got hold of Shawn and he has no clue about the maker of the cabinet, although he did comment on how cool it is. Also, I spoke to the restorer, who remembered the cabinet and said it was definitely antique and made for a phonograph, with original dividers.

Raphael

[jmad7474]

Raphael, thanks again for checking with your contacts on this! I am shocked that neither of them are familiar with the cabinet maker, so I've taken the additional photos requested by Garrett. The front knobs measure 1" long and stick out from the doors by 1" - I assume they are original even though they look a bit small (to me) in proportion to the cabinet size. The bottom of the cabinet is heavily reinforced with five planks of solid mahogany, one for each side plus the center. Hopefully this extra information will enable someone, somewhere, someday to identify the cabinetmaker!