Victor Type E
The
Victor E (initially advertised as the Monarch Junior) was introduced as a mid-level machine in 1902 (left), and sold new for
$25.00, which equates to about $950.00 in today's money. It was a 'step down' model
from the elegant Monarch (Victor M), but still
featured a nice cabinet in quarter-sawn oak with corner columns. It featured a
7" turntable, and a
basic single-spring motor which was more than adequate to play a complete record
without winding. Earliest examples used a front-mount tonearm (left). A
'rigid arm' design was then produced for a short period, and finally a
rear-mount horn/tonearm configuration became standard. Along the way, the turntable size was increased
to 8" and eventually to 10". The price was also increased to
$30.00 in 1905. A brass and steel horn was standard along with an Exhibition Soundbox. For the rear-mount versions, several horn options were available, ranging from a
simple stamped steel horn to various small flower or wood horns.
Early Victor E's will have "pre-dog" Victor dataplates. It should be noted that
these early machines were not produced in sequential production configurations;
in other words, some examples with low serial numbers may be found with the
later 10" turntables, while others with high serial numbers may have earlier
front-mount horns. It is apparent that Victor did not produce these models with sequential dataplates. It is
quite possible that serialized cabinets were stockpiled and later pulled for
assembly with whatever hardware happened to be available on the plant floor that
day.
In addition, the disastrous factory fire of 1904, which destroyed much of
the factory inventory and record-keeping systems, certainly created a great deal
of discontinuity in their production processes.
The Victor E became the Victor II in 1903,
although it is certain that "E" designated models continued to roll off the
assembly line into mid-1905. Exact production numbers are unknown, but are
assumed that more than 70,000 units were produced during the 3 year run; serial numbers of surviving examples have been documented up to nearly s/n 90000, but it is obvious that large blocks of serial numbers were skipped.
Original factory production information on many of the external-horn models is
unreliable, and there is not
currently a good correlation between serial
number and production date for this model.
The current survival database shows the earliest existent Victor E to be S/N 196 and the latest to be S/N 89274. See information above for serial numbers above this range.
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