Best I can tell I found it in 2015 when I was looking through the window of an often-closed antique shop in town. I walked a mile or so to the shop & was printing my face against the plate-glass window until I saw the silhouette of the machine in there. The crank was angled up so I knew it still had the motor in it, and I decided it was time to go talk to the dealer.
I saved my money from mowing yards, stuffed it bill by bill into an envelope which I kept in the back of my dresser. I had a little roll going there where I would keep stuffing money into a stash. Moved up from the envelope to a fruit-jar, and from the fruit-jar to walking to the antique store again to go and purchase the Victrola.
This is what it looked like when I found it. Admittedly this is pretty awful. I thought I'd found a prize, but realized pretty quickly, reading Paul Edie's "The Victor-Victrola Page," that this was definitely a fairly common and not particularly desirable Victrola, and was quite old. Instead of being from the 1920s it was more like 1914. Did not expect the Exhibition soundbox to work that well--of course I'd never heard a Victrola except for one time in an antique store so anyway.
I spent weeks and dollars on it--got the motor going first, then rebuilt the reproducer and tonearm, then replaced the missing back panel and finished it to match. I glued down loose veneer, tightened a back leg that was threatening to fall off, reinstalled the wooden back to the album shelves in it, made a new indicator card for the speed dial, rebuilt the governor and packed stuff with grease that looked like it could stand some grease.
When I got done, the old Victrola looked a bit more like this:
Right now, though, it's been in rather shabby condition as it has gotten dents and dings in it, has had stuff piled on the lid of it-- Life has not always been easy, and it hasn't exactly been kind to the Victrola either. I may actually re-amalgamate the finish instead of using Howards' Feed-n-Wax and all that. The ultimate would be to replate the knobs and the turntable, or all the brightwork all over it--it's all wearing. The crank was so badly rusted when I got it that I had to scrub it within an inch of its life, and though I was going to replace it I figured I'd keep it as it still winds it up anyway.
The motor is right now getting the spa treatment in the barn along with a 1964 Redmond Controls motor from a vintage typewriter that's turning into some other kinds of equipment, a 1907 Edison Standard C motor, and a 1929 or 1930 Grigsby-Grunow motor that I keep threatening to build into a whole new turntable.
I am having fun with re-doing the work that younger me did; it's been a great investment in listening enjoyment & record storage, and I'm glad I started out with an XIV instead of something either too big or too little. It does have a large horn which helps the audio fidelity, & I may end up doing some stuff to it as I keep going.
Right now I'm in a triage state with it trying to figure out what I want to do to it other than just get the motor working.
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