The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just left Craigslist after observing a listing for a tooled leather Victor Victrola Credenza. The problem was that sometime in it's history, a past owner had painted the entire machine, leather and all, a brilliant, bright yellow!! Felt like crying.......or cursing.......or hitting something.......or all three! What are some of the misguided refinishing attempts YOU have observed?

Ewww. The only thing I can offer in defense of a lot of bad refinishing (or painting) jobs is that a lot of them happened in the 1970's or before. With that Credenza it night have been done when most people wouldn't have considered it as a collectable, but just as a 40-something piece of stuff.

LOL, I think bright yellow paint would probably an improvement I find those tooled leather machines ugly at the best of times.

I think the leather models are my favorite credenza type machines. I wish I had a VE 8-60
with the leather option.

Wonder if they had standard record albums or something special???

Back in the seventies I bought a Vic V that had been completely brush painted gold. It looked like someone had been presented a brush and a can of paint and were told that they had five minutes to paint it. I refinished it and have been proud of it ever since. I've had better Vic Vs but I've kept this one because I had some of myself invested in it. Jerry

Bruce_Van_Note wrote:Just left Craigslist after observing a listing for a tooled leather Victor Victrola Credenza. The problem was that sometime in it's history, a past owner had painted the entire machine, leather and all, a brilliant, bright yellow!! Felt like crying.......or cursing.......or hitting something.......or all three! What are some of the misguided refinishing attempts YOU have observed?

that's something worth seeing. can you post a photo?

Does anyone remember colorized "antique-ing" back in the 1970's? You could actually buy a kit from the hardware store to destroy the finish on fine antique furniture! My first Victrola was a big mahogany upright that was "antiqued" in avacado green, inside and out! I'm not kidding you about this. I aways wondered how many great radios, phonographs, and furniture was ruined back in the 60's and 70's?

A childhood friend of mine had this old Knabe upright piano that was whitewashed in that awful white paint that chips super easily. At one time, it was an player piano that got it's guts removed, either because it broke or it was too hard to tune the damn thing with all the bellows in the way. It was pretty fun to bang out "Maple Leaf Rag" on it, though.

I saw that one too. It was in my neck of the woods, just over in Kansas City. Very Sad. If I had a spare credenza to donate the interior parts I might consider it. Not only was the tooled leather cabinet painted that awful yellow, it was also converted to storage.

Jerry B. wrote:Back in the seventies I bought a Vic V that had been completely brush painted gold. It looked like someone had been presented a brush and a can of paint and were told that they had five minutes to paint it. I refinished it and have been proud of it ever since. I've had better Vic Vs but I've kept this one because I had some of myself invested in it. Jerry

You had a Grammy and didn't know it