The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello to everyone that reads

First off, I want to say this is my first time on this Forum, and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Clinton, I reside here in southeastern North Carolina. I love antiques in general, but I specifically enjoy collecting Victrola's. My first Victrola pickup was a VV-XVII floor model, and my second pick up was a vv-220 desk model. At first, I have always wanted to hunt down an actual victor talking machine. I was fascinated by the large external horn and how awesome they looked. Well today, out of the clear blue and upon shear luck, I went onto one the towns local yardsale website and I seen an ad for a Victor V-111 talking machine! I seen the pictures the owner posted, and automatically knew I had to pick this one up!! I have tried my hardest to look up this machine, but I couldn't find any info on this model! I seen type 1's, 2's, 3's, etc, but I did not see a model V-111. I paid 150 for the machine, looks like it needs a new reproducer or replace the whole tone arm altogether. However, it does crank and the platform moves, and the gears sound like they are working just fine. I am REALLY excited about this new addition and cant wait to clean her up, and I already have a place for her. If anyone has any detail on this specific model, please do let me know. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated! The serial is V-111 53501. Again, thank you for taking the time in reading what I had to say and I cant wait to hear from you all

Pictures of the V-111 will be posted below

Kind regards,

Clinton

First,
I want to welcome you to the forum. You will find a great wealth of knowledge here. I'm sorry to say that your V III is not an original machine. It is a hodge-podge of parts put together to make a machine. I don't know if this was done recently, or a long time ago. The motor is definitely swapped. You can tell this because of the plugged hole in the back of the case. Also, a Victor III had corner columns, and this one does not. I'm not sure what case this is, late Zonophone, Columbia, or Talkophone? Also, the back bracket and arm is from a late Zonophone? The horn is a Columbia fitted into the elbow. The V III tag is an original used on a late Victor III from 1917 on. Don't fret, though. The parts alone are worth more than the $150.00 you paid for the whole machine. This was not a costly mistake. I suggest you start buying books. The first good book you should get is the Complete talking Machine by Eric Reiss. It gives restoration tips as well as identification of machines. I also suggest you be patient and a good Victor will pop up.
Harvey Kravitz

Hello,
It looks like the case for the machine may have started life as a Columbia BZ ( Bijou) Have a look at my pictures and see what you think. Don't feel too bad we have all bought something like this when we first started collecting. My first outside horn machine I bought was a Vic IV with a Columbia back bracket,tone arm and horn. The motor was from a Victrola. Harvey has good advise, buy some Phonograph books and ask lots of question before you buy again ( especially if you are not sure)
all the best
Pete

Phonofreak wrote:First,
I want to welcome you to the forum. You will find a great wealth of knowledge here. I'm sorry to say that your V III is not an original machine. It is a hodge-podge of parts put together to make a machine. I don't know if this was done recently, or a long time ago. The motor is definitely swapped. You can tell this because of the plugged hole in the back of the case. Also, a Victor III had corner columns, and this one does not. I'm not sure what case this is, late Zonophone, Columbia, or Talkophone? Also, the back bracket and arm is from a late Zonophone? The horn is a Columbia fitted into the elbow. The V III tag is an original used on a late Victor III from 1917 on. Don't fret, though. The parts alone are worth more than the $150.00 you paid for the whole machine. This was not a costly mistake. I suggest you start buying books. The first good book you should get is the Complete talking Machine by Eric Reiss. It gives restoration tips as well as identification of machines. I also suggest you be patient and a good Victor will pop up.
Harvey Kravitz

Hey Harvey,

I want to say thank you for the information that you provided Kind of interesting to really know all this. This had to be done a long time ago, because the history I have behind this is, ever since she was a child she has grown up with this machine and her father bought this many years ago prior and its been the same piece since then. I will check into those books as I do not have any right now. I guess this would be like the "Frankenstein" of a phonograph haha. But still its very interesting and I like the look of it. Thanks again Harvey

flashpanblue wrote:Hello,
It looks like the case for the machine may have started life as a Columbia BZ ( Bijou) Have a look at my pictures and see what you think. Don't feel too bad we have all bought something like this when we first started collecting. My first outside horn machine I bought was a Vic IV with a Columbia back bracket,tone arm and horn. The motor was from a Victrola. Harvey has good advise, buy some Phonograph books and ask lots of question before you buy again ( especially if you are not sure)
all the best
Pete

Hey Pete,

Thanks for the pictures. It does look very similar as it has the same concave edging around this one. Thank you Pete

As the others have said, the machine was pieced together, but it looks like it was done years ago.

Finding a VV-XVII as your first machine is impressive. There are plenty of seasoned collectors who have that machine on their wish list!

zenith82 wrote:As the others have said, the machine was pieced together, but it looks like it was done years ago.

Finding a VV-XVII as your first machine is impressive. There are plenty of seasoned collectors who have that machine on their wish list!

Hey zenith82,

Thank you for the comment. I just think its really cool, whoever pieced it together did a pretty good job. Who knows what the story was behind on this when the person decided to put all these parts together to form this machine. The VV-XVII is truly my favorite machine, here are a few pictures of it

Very nice XVII Clinton!
I also have one (VV-130) as my 'main' upright.

A question for the pros...
Was it common for Victor to switch out the 'I' and use a '1' in it's place?
or was this only for specific models?

Mr Grumpy wrote:Very nice XVII Clinton!
I also have one (VV-130) as my 'main' upright.

A question for the pros...
Was it common for Victor to switch out the 'I' and use a '1' in it's place?
or was this only for specific models?

To answer your question......the very late models from 1-5 used the late aluminum plate (as shown above) and roman numerals were no longer used. Numbers took their place. My very late mahogany Vic. 5 with this type of tag is simply stamped V-V. Like the V-111 plate above, my Vic.5 is almost 60,000 in serial number.
Some say that these very late models were for "export" only. I'm not sure that's really the case.

Mr Grumpy wrote:Very nice XVII Clinton!
I also have one (VV-130) as my 'main' upright.

A question for the pros...
Was it common for Victor to switch out the 'I' and use a '1' in it's place?
or was this only for specific models?

Thank you Mr Grumpy! :)I never heard of the 130, and I looked it up and its very nice. Did not know it was the successor of the XVII, very neat machine and some upgrades that were done to it!