The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am wondering on the quality of a Edison and Victor cabinets. In Edison's advertising book Edison and Music, it talks about birch and gumwood being used by many manufacturers of talking machines. It also talks about red oak being used instead of quartersawn wood. The booklet says Edison used real mahogany and oak. Does this mean the wood is solid oak or mahogany, or is it veneered.

Which cabinets are better? Edison or Victor?

Many Edison (and Victor) cabinets have veneer; but that is not a bad thing.

Edison generally did not make its own cabinets, but bought them from outside providers with uneven results. And Edison is somewhat famous (infamous?) for cutting more and more corners as years went on.

Victor made most, perhaps all, of its cabinets "in-house" and they are pretty high quality.

Clay

Clay is spot-on.


Victor Talking Machine was nearly the Rolls-Royce of American talking machines, in terms of overall quality and consistency of quality.


Even their inexpensive machines are fine pieces.


Edison and Columbia contracted with various cabinet manufacturers ( at lease in the disc era ), with varying results.


With ANY of this furniture made before WW-II, it was assembled using hide-glue (made from animal proteins), and if the furniture is stored in or exposed to dampness, the cabinets will begin to fall-apart: joints loosening, decorative blocks falling-off, veneer releasing. Victor products included, although they seem to be a little more tolerant of moisture than some other makes.

That said, from my own observations, I believe Victor employed better joinery techniques in their cabinet builds...

Properly made veneered furniture can be superior to solid wood, being less likely to split or warp. The real hallmark of cheap furniture was paper thin veneer- that is what you see on a lot of cheap 1930's furniture used along with cheaper woods covered with a tinted lacquer to blend them in.

The Mid to high end Edison cabinets in the Amberola and Disc models are usually well made. The cheaper machines did cut corners- the "Hepplewhite" Diamond Disc cabinet is mostly a plywood box and the "Chalet" table model was made from red gumwood with a colored varnish. They still had the same high quality interior mechanism as the more expensive models though.

I am thinking about adding a nice Edison or Victrola upright to my collection. I can only have one. So I think I am leaning toward a Victrola. I already have a Edison Chalet for a Edison machine.

Victrolacollector wrote:I am thinking about adding a nice Edison or Victrola upright to my collection. I can only have one. So I think I am leaning toward a Victrola. I already have a Edison Chalet for a Edison machine.

If you want an Edison disc machine in a nice cabinet look for one of the "Chippendale" models- they are quite handsome and sold well enough to guarantee that decently priced examples are available.

Go for a nice Victrola.

If it truly can only be one, I would go for an Orthophonic, ideally a Credenza / 8-30 or at least an 8-12.

If you prefer a traditional Victrola (pre-Orthophonic), then I would suggest one of the larger uprights:

VV-XI (dead common, but affordable and a good performer)

VV- XIV (wallflower cousin to "Victrola the Sixteenth", but a large, well-made upright )

VV - VTLA / XVI ("Victrola the Sixteenth" - the "original" Victrola - Victor's flagship machine; earlier "L-door" examples are a bit dear, especially if they have all the original album folios, later ones after the cabinet re-do, are more affordable.)


My next / best choice after the above-mentioned Victrolas, would be a nice Brunswick upright, with the three-way Ultona tone-arm and sound-box.


Happy Hunting !

estott wrote:

Victrolacollector wrote:I am thinking about adding a nice Edison or Victrola upright to my collection. I can only have one. So I think I am leaning toward a Victrola. I already have a Edison Chalet for a Edison machine.

If you want an Edison disc machine in a nice cabinet look for one of the "Chippendale" models- they are quite handsome and sold well enough to guarantee that decently priced examples are available.

True. I gave away my first Diamond Disc player ( S-19 ) when I came across a nice Mahogany C-19 Chippendale at an estate sale, and that one subsequently got bumped to storage by a very nice Oak C-19 from forum member gemering.


I do not need more than one DD player, although I would again make room for an early example - one of the 250's, with pull-out drawers.


I would caution against planning on using a DD player with lateral adapter to play lateral-cut records... there may be some that are better than others, but the ones I have are a floppy combination of elbows and joints, and there is SO much potential for configuring things incorrectly, and destroying your records.

Thanks so much guys! I think I am leaning for a full size Victrola. I don't have enough room for a credenza so, It will probably be a pre-ortho machine.

You all have been helpful in this decision.

I would say, I missed out on a nice Brunswick with Ultona, it was Oak and had all the manuals with it. The price was $395.00, next time I went back to the antique mall in Michigan city, Indiana, it was gone. I could not believe how great the carvings were, ornate detail and the hardware was nice and shiny.

From the Jamestown, NY paper of September 1917 - they seem to be describing the Chippendale DD model being made by the Jamestown Mantel Company: