The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Frank, the gold on your 8-12 tone arm is the way I remember it on the 8-12 I mentioned, not the way it looks on Microtrol's tone arm photo. The passage of time and the environment affect these plated parts differently in every instance.

Henry,

I have to confess... it was blackish when I got the machine. I assumed that it was supposed to be bright and shiny, and tried to polish it. I was fresh out of high-school and had no idea about patinaed metal finishes. So where it now looks gold is where I tried to clean it up with the Brasso...

I don't understand why that was ever popular. If I was going to pay good money fro a brand new machine, I'd want my parts to gleam in the light, not look like they've sat out in the elements for 50 years.

The Victrola 8-12 I got some years ago has the darker metal parts, along with the darker colored cabinet. Seems that this color combination was more typical with the later incarnation of the 8-12. I have seen a number of them, usually on eBay, with a lighter walnut cabinet and gold-plated fittings, which I took to be from the initial production run of this model. I also have a VV 7-10 Victrola/Radiola with the exact same finish, and when in nice "as new" shape it looks attractive enough. For years there have been products foisted onto the public that practically guarantee the ability to make an old piece look "as new". Polyurethane was one, but go back a generation and pigmented "varnish-stain" was another.

As for any reason for the popularity of the darkened metal parts, I'd say: fashion. I work in a shop that sells antique and new door hardware and light fixtures. Today's taste is for a finish called "oil rubbed bronze", which is a very similar dark-brown-to-almost-black finish. I've had to take perfectly lovely polished bronze Victorian door hardware (think "shiny penny") and soak it in a darkener solution to get it to the appropriate color to suit the customer's taste. We do it to make the sale, and it can always be buffed off later, but for now it's the color fashion in home decor. Way back in the 1980s we buffed off silverplate from lights to get them to the underlying shiny brass. We'd never do that today, but back then the taste was for shiny brass. We couldn't sell a silver plated fixture. I'm glad that an appreciation for patinated metal finishes was re-awakened before any further sins were committed in the name of fashion.

Didn't Edison's later Edisonic phonographs show up in a similar dark finish with the shaded "bronze" metal parts?

Patina-ed metals became quite popular during the Arts & Crafts period both in terms of metal art objects and building / cabinet hardware.

Additionally, the early 20th century saw an interest in the "revival" of furniture styles from the 15th through 18th centuries ( Italian / Spanish Renaissance, English Tudor / Jacobean, American "Colonial", etc.) modelled on museum pieces whose metals had darkened with age...

Bright polished brass hardware would "scream" against dark "English oak Tudor-bethan" cabinetry, as an arbitrary example.

The 8-12 is described by Victor as "French Renaissance", I believe, and the use of dark hardware made for a more authentic "antique" look.

I have several radios from the 1930's whose brass dial bezels are also done in a blackened bronze type finish.

It was a matter of esthetics.

People still pay for "weathered" finishes on metal... blackened or oil-rubbed bronze, verdigris (green) copper, etc. Or their faux equivalents.

Years ago in model railroad work there was a product called (generically) "brass blackener," which did just that. I often wondered (and still do) what the chemistry of that liquid was, because I was sure that one could mix up a batch of it using household chemicals (ammonia? lemon juice? Budweiser?) for a lot cheaper than they charged for a small bottle of the stuff. Any chemists out there with an answer?

Thanks, shane. BTW, what is "liver of sulfur"?

Mmm. Thanks Frank. Guess I'll not be using liver of sulfur any time soon