The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/atd/5753271074.html

I've never seen this suggestion in any old Popular Mechanics magazines. Oh well.

Was this a factory upgrade? Think I will do it with my record players---after I put stereo components in. Will probably get big bucks after I do it---my XVIII is so bland looking---this will really dress it up and make me rich. Did they offer different color options?

It looks like wicker.I've seen photos of wicker phonographs,but I've never seen one up close and personal.edisonplayer

It would be interesting to know the provenance of this machine. There were business that painted talking machines for customers. Perhaps it was possible to pay to give your machine a custom wicker look back in the day. I find a machine like this very interesting and would love to inspect it more closely. Jerry Blais

If you open up some of those images on your computer and zoom in on them, you can see they chopped the carvings off the legs to get the wicker "fabric" to lay down flat on the corners. Maybe something was already wrong there and they just finished it up, but it is kind of creative I guess and reeks of the 1970's to me. Not as loud as that yellow one I painted black though... I saw a player piano about 20 years ago that had this sort of tune-up as well only they painted the whole case lipstick red, and then did the wicker part the same way in gold with some sort of chair rail molding around it. Hope the Victrola won a prize at the fair or something.

My Dad absolutely hated wicker and always though bed-bugs were lurking in it. I think of him nearly every time I see something like this and have to chuckle. He wouldn't have gone near the thing.

It looks like a Heywood- Wakefield "Coachbuilt" (so to speak) Victor Victrola- a designer model that was a collaboration between Victor and H-W, if memory serves.

I don't know if they came in white, but it's possible.

Incidentally, the link goes to a cathedral radio for me...

I put the correct link on there now. Don't know how I did that one, but who knows with me and my computer skills.

EarlH wrote:I put the correct link on there now. Don't know how I did that one, but who knows with me and my computer skills.

LOL, I'm not far behind so don't feel bad.

Seems to me that the "E" suffix on the serial number rings a bell along with this too. Sure looks like a real H-W wicker machine. They did it with other brands as well:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/foru ... pic=3542.0

In fact,almost all the other ones out there look like Heinemann variant machines. However, I have seen one other Victor Victrola that was a H-W, and it looked like this one but not white.

In looking at the detail on this one, I seriously doubt it's homemade... I think it's a real H-W. Whether it left the factory white or not is anyone's guess. I don't ever recall seeing one in anything else but "wicker color".

http://www.winsteadsauction.com/special ... tions.html

About ¼ to ⅓ way down the page there's a painted one. This person was quite the collector, too.

Hmmmm.