The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Greetings!

I'm still pretty much a Newbie to this forum, but I've been posting several things about the Victrola Florenza that I inherited. Several people have asked me to share pics, so here you go!

For those new to my "dilemma", while I have always wanted to have my very own Victrola, this is my first--it was owned by a distant relative. It appears to have been in the same family since it was purchased in 1926 and had most of the original paperwork with it. Alas, there have been some "modifications" to it over the years, the worst being the gutting of the entire left side of the cabinet as well as removing the legs. Victrola plays like a dream, though!

As I began my goal of trying to get the Florenza back to as close to its original form as possible (ie: get even a non-working Radiola back in place), I realized that this particular model was somewhat scarce, to the point where even photographs of original, complete ones are hard to come by. Hence, my posting these pics, warts and all.

If you have a Florenza and/or are familiar with what it came with, I would love to hear from you! I was recently able to purchase a Radiola 25 (due largely in part from this very forum) that will soon find its rightful place in my Florenza. But as you'll see from the pics, the left side of the cabinet had been modified and painted (just look for the gross grey paint), so I'm not sure of the original dimensions of that side of the cabinet (note the bare wood inside the door on the one pic--the door has also been modified to remove the frame that the antenna sat in, so there's no way the current dimensions of that one side of the cabinet are original.

Anyway, sorry for rambling and enjoy the pics!

PS: Can't seem to figure out why the pics are posting sideways (and in the case of the antenna door, upside down). But they right themselves when you click to enlarge them!

What a beautiful old phonograph! It's HUGE.

The bare wood inside the door is modern plywood, not the oak plywood the Victrola would have been constructed with. (Correct me if I'm wrong. My Victrola is an old 1914 model and they changed manufacturing quite a bit between '14 and '25) But since the antenna door is still there, I think the new plywood could be taken out and you would be back in business (After putting Citri-Strip on that gray paint.)

The outside pictures don't make it look like they shortened the cabinet lengthwise or anything so I'm not sure where you're getting "proportions," all it looks like to me is that someone decided to modify the radio box.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:What a beautiful old phonograph! It's HUGE.

You're right...on both accounts! Heavy, too!

Regarding "proportions", you're correct--they didn't modify the outside. It's the inside--specifically under where the Radiola would sit--that they modified. I was lucky enough to find (again, through the help of this forum) an original "antenna door", complete with the antenna box still in place. I've yet to receive it, so I can't tell for sure, but it appears as though the antenna box sticks out 1-2" from the inside of the door. The box-less door that I currently have, when closed, pushes right up against the modern (unpainted) plywood. So I'm thinking that when they removed the radio box, that allowed them to widen the space under the Radiola since the box was no longer protruding into the cabinet when the door was closed.

Put another way, I think they widened the entire space under where the Radiola once sat. Looking specifically at what's been painted grey, the top, bottom, and right side appear to be original wood (but the shelving brackets appear to have been added). The left side, which is the piece that is bare wood on the one side, is clearly a newer addition. There are also nail/screw holes along the inside bottom, leading me to believe that perhaps the inside bottom came up higher than it currently does.

thanks for taking the time to respond!