The First Victrola

[Starkton]

[quote=epigramophone post_id=346544 time=1720342571 user_id=1616]
When you challenge the research of others it is customary to explain your reasons for doing so.
To simply say that you would consider another date to be "more likely" is not good enough.
The onus is on you to "present a confirming historical source" for February 1907.
[/quote]

That's a justified objection. Unfortunately, Oakley and Proudfoot themselves give no source for their dating.

The "Talking Machine News" was the first English trade paper especially dedicated to talking machines and records. I have the TMN from the first issue in 1903 up to and including the issue of 15 February 1907. The Sheraton Grand was not mentioned anywhere. For me, this rules out the possibility that the Sheraton Grand could have reached the market in November 1906.

According to the "Phonographische Zeitschrift," the oldest German trade journal in this field, Deutsche Grammophon-A.G. in Berlin registered the design of the Sheraton Grand on 28 February 1907 under the factory number 200. This model was entered in the German design register in March 1907 under the reference number 24875.

I finally cite the "Talking Machine Review," a well-known English magazine for the history of the talking machine, in its issue 62 of 1980 on page 42: "In 1907 the Gramophone Grand model was introduced, the first by that Company to have an enclosed horn. The two advertisements for it, in this issue, are taken from the London Illustrated News, of February & March, I907."

[maginter]

Sadly, the "Pooley" Victrola is an ugly beast by any standards, surely a misjudgement of design by someone responsible, if it was Pitts himself, the name fits perfectly. As rare as it is in the UK, the last one sold for all of £40 IIRC. Clearly no one wanted to take that bruiser home with them.

Maybe that is why I like it so much!!! I would love to have one someday!!