New addition: an early Consolette

[beaumonde]

This one I originally bought as a gift for a friend about 8 years ago -- found it locally for $90 -- and it became his first and only Orthophonic phonograph. Well, it became used less and less, and his partner decided that "Out it goes, we're really more into '40s through '60s stuff", so they asked me whether I "wanted it back". I jumped at the chance. Turns out that it was a desirable early model sans grill and with perfect brass nickel sound box. I had always coveted it over the years, but knew it had a safe, albeit somewhat neglectful home...

The finish is really nicely preserved, except for some mild wear, and scrapes and scratches here and there, but nothing egregious. It plays wonderfully. I do have a question: were the two lower shelves designed for single records in sleeves, or for albums, and if the latter, what size/design?

Some rough-n-ready photos:

[FloridaClay]

Congrats on recovery of this nice machine. That brass reproducer alone is worth several hundred dollars.

"Look for the Dog" notes that these came with 2 record albums, storing 10 each, but it doesn't give the size (10" or 12").

You might check with George Vollema, [email protected], to see if he has a grille among his big stash of parts machines.

Clay

[beaumonde]

Actually, Clay, it's not supposed to have a grill -- the earliest ones didn't!

I should have looked in the Baumbach books to check about the albums, but I was a bit rushed this morning writing this post. Thanks.

About the value of the brass reproducer -- I'm not really sure if the nickel ones are quite as desirable, as the finish only matches certain machines (e.g. not a Credenza). I agree, though, it's certainly worth a lot more than I paid for the Victrola.

As an addendum, I just checked Paul Edie's Victor-Victrola page (not having access to the Victor Data Book or LFTG here at work). The earliest style of Consolette went up to about 10500 SN, the style and name (to VV 4-3) being then changed in Dec, 1925. The earliest ones represent only about 4.4% of the total 4-3/Consolette models produced from 1925-29.

[FloridaClay]

Actually, Clay, it's not supposed to have a grill -- the earliest ones didn't!

Ah, OK, didn't pick up on that.

Clay

[Victrolaman]

Very nice Consolette. I to have a nice Nickel plated brass repro in my collection, Those are even harder to come by than the gold colored brass ones. Found mine on one just like yours, someone cut the legs off of it so the guy was selling it for parts. Best parts machine i ever found
Glad you rescued this one

[FloridaClay]

Just for grins I looked up what the last nickel plated Orthophonic reproducer sold for an eBay. $295 And I would consider that pretty well bought.

Clay

[beaumonde]

Yowza! And the one from earlier in the month brought $227...

By the way, you can see in my second photo that I sometimes use Läkerol pastille tins as needle tins (for new-production needles) -- I have for years, and also love Läkerols, serendipitously.

[FloridaClay]

Adam, as you mentioned you didn't have a copy at hand, the Victor Data Book suggests that your serial number 4000 is indeed early, dating from 1925. Serial numbers started with 501 and 9,867 of them were shipped in the fourth quarter. (There were none before that and Baumbach thinks that the reported numbers for the first 2 quarters of shipment are likely too low.)

Total shipments over the life of the model were 234,289 (through 1929 and including the VV 4-3 designated units).

For some reason having an even numbered serial number like that also seems kind of cool to me.

Clay

[m0xiemama]

Wow gorgeous. I just got a later 4-3 model for $15 but the cabinet is going to need a lot of work. What a score!