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Does anyone know when L door Victrolas transitioned from storage boxes to albums?

Thanks in advance,
George

I thought that this would be an easy one. I am interested in a machine because it has the full set of boxes, but I also know that it is an earlier XVI because of the raised motor board and other features of a VTLA. My thought was that I would buy the machine with the boxes and records and sell the machine and sort through the records, but I don't want to do that if my 1911 L-door XVI should have albums instead.

I don't have exact dates, but I can tell you my late Gunmetal Oak L-door XVI was purchased in December 1911 for Christmas and it came with albums, not boxes. My Mahogany L-door which is slightly earlier came with boxes. Both machines were from original families so it's pretty safe to say nobody did any switching. I can check exact serial numbers later when I'm home if that would be helpful. Keep in mind also that the albums for the L-doors are slightly thinner than the gold metal pull ring albums made for the first (non L-door) XVI, the ten inch albums have one less page in them, 16 pages instead of 17 I believe, the 17 page ones won't fit, I remember trying.

Sean

I might bet that there is no exact cutoff date, as the boxes or albums may have been sent to dealers separately from the machines. It may have come down to what the dealer had in stock at the time the machine was purchased

mick_vt wrote:I might bet that there is no exact cutoff date, as the boxes or albums may have been sent to dealers separately from the machines. It may have come down to what the dealer had in stock at the time the machine was purchased

I'm 98% sure machines were shipped from the factory crated with albums / boxes and not likely switched out by a dealer. Of course, it's possible, but not likely with Victor.

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:

mick_vt wrote:I might bet that there is no exact cutoff date, as the boxes or albums may have been sent to dealers separately from the machines. It may have come down to what the dealer had in stock at the time the machine was purchased

I'm 98% sure machines were shipped from the factory crated with albums / boxes and not likely switched out by a dealer. Of course, it's possible, but not likely with Victor.

Sean

It would be an interesting bit of trivia to know. IIRC the motor and some other hardware was boxed and located in the record storage shelf area of the machines when they were crated, so they would have had to be boxed and shipped separately if indeed each set was shipped one for one with machines

Actually the motor and associated parts were packed in the top of the crate, not in the record storage area. Here's a scan of an L-door manual, as far as I've always known, albums were wrapped individually and shipped in the storage compartment. Years ago, a Victrola XIV turned up at a local auction that had never been opened until before the auction and I remember how cool it was seeing such a neat site, the albums were are wrapped in brown paper inside.

Sean

Albums replaced boxes in 1909, so boxes would not be appropriate for your XVI. The proper albums for your machine are the ones that hold 17 records each, so buying that VTLA in order to get the record boxes would not meet your goal. However, it sounds to me like buying the VTLA for it's own sake could be a good idea, especially if it is complete with the correct record boxes.

Jim

Thank you for adding the attachment. The subject is more interesting than I thought.

phonojim wrote:Albums replaced boxes in 1909, so boxes would not be appropriate for your XVI. The proper albums for your machine are the ones that hold 17 records each, so buying that VTLA in order to get the record boxes would not meet your goal. However, it sounds to me like buying the VTLA for it's own sake could be a good idea, especially if it is complete with the correct record boxes.

Jim

Where are you getting this info, please? I've owned so many L-doors over the years and only one had albums and they are not the same albums that the first non L-ddor XVis used. Mine have 16 pages, not the 17 the later albums have. The machine I'm referring to came straight out of the original family home where it had been since it was purchased new. I could be off on the year, but the sales receipt is in the drawer, I can easily check that when I'm home, but I'd swear the machine is post-1909.

Sean