Is this Grafonola what I suspect it is?

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Zenger
Victor II
Posts: 220
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 7:50 pm

Is this Grafonola what I suspect it is?

Post by Zenger »

Greetings. I picked this impressive (51"h x 22.5"w x 24"d) machine up yesterday, and I haven't seen another one like it. It's a Grafonola, of course, and near as I can tell -- it doesn't have a label on the bottom, or anywhere -- it's a model 200, but I can't be sure. I have a third-style De Luxe and a first-style Nonpareil, and of course the 1918-1923 machines (H-2, K-2, etc.) are everywhere, but I don't believe I've ever come across one of these 1915-vintage models in the wild before. Did Columbia not make very many machines in this series? Or were they primarily sold outside the northeast?

What made this machine particularly attractive to me is its oak cabinet; I find it really handsome, and, unlike most mahogany finishes (which of course I love, too), oak doesn't alligator. That said, I have only ever seen one other oak Columbia upright in person, a G-2, and that was many years ago. All the others I've seen were mahogany. Did Columbia just not make many oak machines? I know most Victor uprights were mahogany, too, but I have seen at least several oak machines in person. I know wood types went in and out of style, but was oak really that unpopular in those years?

As always, any and all other information and/or speculation about this machine would be most welcome. Thanks!
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