Early?? Victor Exhibition Soundbox

[Starkton]

Some time ago I glued the needle bar directly on a glass diaphragm manufactured by Norman for the Exhibition soundbox. It sounds great!

What is the lowest known number on a rear mount Exhibition soundbox?

[phonogfp]

I bet George Paul can shed some light here as well, so I'm going to wait for him to chime in...

I too think it's original, but like Sean, I can't recall where I've seen one. The morphing of the Gibson sound box into the New Century, into the Exhibition, was rapid and no doubt legitimate variations exist.

Thanks for sharing!

George P.

[penman]

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/downlo ... &mode=view


I finally found the photo of a similar Exhibition, the only difference (at least from the front) is the ER Johnson mfg. vs. Victor TM. The Johnson front must be EXCEEDINGLY rare since mine has a serial # of only 2354, the change must have happened when only less than 2000 had been made. I love these early variants.

George

[penman]

"So - Is it possible for a Johnson machine to have originally come with a Eldridge Johnson Exhibition reproducer? I have what I believe to be an E. R. Johnson celluloid tag Gram-O-Phone although it was missing the tag when I got it. It looks like the one pictured in "The Talking Machine Compendium" on page 95. It is serial number 33246, not too far off from the one pictured in the book (34983). I assumed the "J" mark confirmed it was a Johnson machine?? It came out of an old collection and I figured the reproducer was correct. I also have an early Victor Royal, SN 679 with an Eldridge Johnson Exhibition reproducer. I always thought it was interesting because the reproducer on the Johnson machine is SN: 2 and on the Royal it is #1465, I figured this roughly represented the beginning and the end of the Johnson marked Exhibitions. I'm wondering if my assumptions are correct. - John P."

This is the text from the original thread (Aug. 9, 2010) on the soundboxes.

Well based on this, I'm moving my early Exhibition to my Berliner. Still not exactly right (the machine is an 1897 #1246), but I don't have a CJ for it (hint hint). Photos happily posted if there are requests.

George