The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I battled the cold today to venture out near the Massachusetts border to hit an estate auction that was packed to the rafters in hopes of bringing something fun home. I did, and at a nice price to boot. The only issues this has is a frozen lid lock that somebody pried open, I was happy to see the key escutcheon in the drawer along with a bunch of other goodies including two payment coupons and the final invoice from John Wannamaker's in NYC from the original owner. There's also an aftermarket Victor auto brake and a vertical elbow for playing Pathés and Edisons with it. I'm pretty excited since you never see these in oak, let alone a very uncommon finish! This is the machine, fresh out of the car. This thing has one of the quietest motors I've ever heard from this period, too! It's going to clean up nicely. Pardon the "crammed look", but space is getting a little tight in my main phono room, still, I just couldn't pass this up!

Sean

Congrats! That is what makes collecting fun! Nice machine!
Steve

Nice machine. It's nice to know that I'm not the only sucker for a big Victrola or Amberola. Jerry Blais

Very nice! And they never installed the auto brake? Curious...!

In all the years I've collected, I've never owned an L-door. I've come close many times (there's a mahogany one for $275 about an hour from here!), but never succumbed. If I found a good oak one for a good price, I'd be a goner.

Congratulations!

George P.

your almost as bad as i am with showing the world what you just found..lol ..Very cool!...very nice meeting you outside the auction hall today, good luck with the machine
matt

I was really excited about this one (and still am). The photos make it look much brighter than it is, going by the Victor data book, this could be gun metal, it's not quite dark enough to be Flemish oak, it's way to dark to be fumed.

It's weird with L-doors the last several months, I picked up this one, a VTLA and a mahogany L-door in less than an 8 month period. This is the first oak L-door I've ever seen for sale outside of a show.

Sean

Stunning Sean, These are the finds we all dream off. Congrats

Congratulations, this is a very nice machine. I love the wood grain. Are you sure it's not smoked? The inside of the lid looks quite similar to the picture in victor-victrola.com
Great find.
Andreas

Great XVI- I really like that finish. I braved the cold here in Houston yesterday, it was about 65, to attend an auction a few miles north. Ended up there was an oak VV-100, I swore it was a XVI that was pictured... and it had a Brunswick Ultona tonearm to boot. A Brunstrola. I came home without it but it was a great day to get out for a drive. Ah well, I'm sure I'll strike gold like you did next time!!

alang wrote:Congratulations, this is a very nice machine. I love the wood grain. Are you sure it's not smoked? The inside of the lid looks quite similar to the picture in victor-victrola.com
Great find.
Andreas

I think the outside is just filthy, the inside is pretty dirty too. It's not an easy finish to get decent or accurate photos of, though. It's in really nice unmarked up shape, though, no major bumps or bruises. The major work will be fixing the lock and a small area where the key escutcheon goes, but nothing makor at all. We'll see after a good cleaning in a week or so!

Sean