I have see the postings for this machine as well as the one on the Victrola message board. First I am shocked at some of the arrogance of the postings, especially the one below.
I own this machine and am the seller. I have been on Ebay for almost 9 years with 100% positive feedback and having been collecting phonographs, mostly Victor machines for around 12 years. That being said I still look for the experts for help and advice often. As far as the machines goes and the below post... the INSIDE was repainted, that must have been missed by this response. I can only state what I was told when I purchased it as far as condition of the inside goes. He claimed it was not that nice and he repainted it. He did say it also had details inside. I agree about the inside almost always being perfect on a machine and would rather have the inside left original but I could not change what the previous owner did. As far as the outside I probably should have been clearer in the auction, but I did NOT say this was a Victor Factory job. As a matter of fact years ago I posted on one of these lists the machine to show it and I personally feel it was DONE BY THE DEALER. I even posted ads from Talking machine world at that time. http://home.comcast.net/~vtm12/asianad1.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~vtm12/asianad2.jpg As for the outside. This is absolutely an original finish from the time the machine was new. Look at the amount of detail and type of work that was done on it. To say it's an amatuer paint job is ridiculous and to compare it to some of the other pieces with little artwork is also off base. I guess I could have had a two page text description on the machine in the auction, but I prefer a shorter ad and know that any true Victor Collector will know the rarity of the machine. Whether you think it's ugly (as most of my fellow collectors who see my collection say about it), or thinks it's beautiful as I do... that rarity of it stays the same. And as a side note I have discussed this machine via email with many collectors and who I would consider a Victor expert and he agrees with me about it being an dealer job done from the original sale of the machines. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Houston" <[email protected]> To: "Antique Phonograph List" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:53 PM Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Asian Victor >I commented on another forum on this. One thing that glaringly detracts > from authenticity is the face that the lid decal was masked for the > inerior > paint job. Had it been done at the factory, the decal would have been > applied AFTER the paint. I'm not one who likes pastels at all, nand this > blue-gray interior is vomit-inducing to me. > > I, as Bruce says, doubt that this thing is for real. It's a screamin' lot > better than I could do, but I have no artistic talent at all. I couldn't > even draw good stick figures! So, some poor sap is gonna get the reaming > of > his life with this abortion. > > By the way, I've always found that the interior of Victrolas was better > preserved than the exterior. I just bought a VE-XVI electrola, and > typically (to me), the playing compartment came like new with a Go-Jo > cleaning, while the exterior will need to flowed after the Go-Jo. > From [email protected] Sun Oct 14 13:47:34 2007 From: [email protected] (Bob Johnson) Date: Sun Oct 14 18:00:54 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Asian Victrola Message-ID: <[email protected]> I normally don't offer my opinion on this list, but I will chime in on this one. I own several of these Chinese painted Victrolas and have observed many more in my 26 years of collecting. I believe this is the work of an artist with too much time on his/her hands. It obviously is not a factory job because of the mahogany wood behind the lid decal. I have never seen any Victrola with the interior done in grey. Mostly orange, sometimes pastel blue or green but that is it. Since the Oriental painted Victrolas were expensive models, why would Victor ever put an expensive paint job on the inexpensive XIV? If I thought it had a remote chance of being authentic, I would bid upwards of $4,000 or so. You will not see me bid even ten bucks on this one. May the bidders beware. Bob
