Look What I Found

[EKman]

Greetings all,

I found this at a junk sale. It looks and smells old. From what I can tell, this is an antique victrola by the RCA company. I've searched around ebay looking for one exactly like this to compare to for some more information on when it was made and all that.

Here is a photo:

[EKman]

One of the panels.

[EKman]

Center panel with the RCA logo

[EKman]

Last one of the decorated panels.

[EKman]

Playing arm.

[EKman]

Inside with the lid raised. There is a small bag of needles inside.

[EKman]

Inside is the gear set-up, it also had the crank included inside and when I wound it up, the table turned just like it was supposed to.

[EKman]

The top of the turntable.

If anyone has any info on this, what size records it takes, or a date of production, anything at all, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Chris

[gijoe002us]

Chris
Kinda on topic but here in Virginia there used to be a huge statue of the dog hearing "His Masters Voice" on the side of the road. It has always been one of my favorite logos. As far as info specific I would reccomend a forum search. Perhaps google Phonograph forum, these are popular items. I also found a good selection of images on google and yahoo image search. Search performed "His masters voice" good chance you may be able to match it up and get the specs that way.
Cool find!!

Hope this helps,

Joe

[Michael Fay]

What ever you do, don't over turn the crank. There is some kind of belt in there that as you can imagine, won't take a beating any more. I have purposely let the thing spin until it goes slack. Someone told me this is a good thing to do when not in use. I am in no way an expert but I have my Grandparents RCA victrola player. It is a 1922 year model. And is more modern than yours so as the "horn" is hidden under the wood cabinetry--yours is definitely older.
As for records, I assume any old fashioned victrola record will do(basically all the records into the 30/early 40's . Thet are thicker(I think made from a shellac) and much heavier than regular records. They are pretty cheap in an antique mall. Save those needles--they do wear out slowly.
As Joe said check the internet--massive sites on these things.
---Michael F.

[Steve Campbell]

His Masters Voice was sort of the logo of the RCA company. I think this may play 78 RPM records.

[PaulR]

Now that is a treasure. What do you think? I am guessing around the WW1 period and slightly earlier!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Chris, I don't know anything about these, but having seen some on different antiques programmes on TV, I do know that they are reproduced.

Cheers, Ade.

[Erich B.]

This one is a reproduction. They're made in India primarily, and the quality is much different than that of the originals. They are sold as copies and not made to deceive--they're much different than the originals.
I hope you didn't pay too much! The retail on these is around $200-300.00 whereas an nice original exposed horn machine can't be found for much less than $750-1000.00 and up.
Erich

[EKman]

Thanks for the information guys. No, I didn't pay much for it...just $1.

I'm going to search around a bit and try to find some records and if this thing plays, then I'll definately be keeping it as I think it would look and sound very much in character in my collecting room.

Thanks,

Chris