The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Lori and I are preparing to restore this Electrola, and found the lid decal to be upside down. We could leave it in place by not stripping and refinishing the inside of the lid, or we could put in a new decal, right side up, by going through that process. What would you do and why?

I think I'd flip my lid.
Not the whole lid- just the top board.

If that's the way it left the factory, I'd definitely leave it in place.

OrthoFan

I’ve seen a very nice, all original VV-XXV (Victor Schoolhouse) and a gorgeous, all original Vernis Martin Victrola (sorry, I don’t remember which model) both sporting upside down decals in their respective lids. In both cases, I thought this interesting quirk added a lot to the story and history of the machine! Errors did occur at the factory (even on high end Vernis Martin machines), add some glaring ones did evidently get by the inspectors!

Leave the upside down decal alone on this seldom seen, walnut Victrola! It is part of its history...

Bob

˙ɯǝlqoɹd ǝɥʇ ǝǝs ʇ,uop I 'ʎllɐǝɹ

All kidding aside, I would also leave it alone. It looks too nice as is to mess with.

I bought an "L Door" Victrola one time with an upside down decal like this. However, in my particular situation, the correct front outside of the lid had suffered damage at one time. A creative owner actually flipped the whole lid around and modified it at some point in its history. It looked fine unless you opened it up and saw the upside down decal. If you looked close, you could see repair marks where the original lid support mounted.... pretty obvious!!! Probably not the case with your machine, looks a little more historically authentic, LOL.

Might be worth a close examination, though....

I would leave it alone and enjoy it. I have a Columbia machine with the same decal issue.

Or mount it to the ceiling.

Remember that upside-down postage stamp that was worth millions?? One never knows.

I tend to agree with OrthoFan and Phono-Phan. It was a "mistake" and an anomaly-- and is part of the machine's history.....an otherwise beautiful machine that has survived in pretty nice shape. It will certainly be a sentence starter that could result in conversation that is far more rich than texting and emails Once it is "fixed", the special-ness goes away.

Just my two cents--

Brad Abell

It's fine as is, for all of the above reasons.

James.