The Victor-Victrola Page   

VV 4-7 / VE 4-7 X

RARITY: ¤   VALUE:  ¤ 

The VV 4-7 was likely intended as a replacement for the discontinued VV 4-5 "Colony" phonograph, which had not sold well. In late 1925, the Colony model had intended to be a "step-up" Orthophonic model from the basic VV 4-3 "Consolette"; however, the Colony offered no improvement in performance over the 4-3, and had rather large and awkward front doors. The 4-7 was subsequently introduced in the summer of 1926 as a premium small floor model, with a larger and more stylized cabinet than the 4-3. It also had a slightly larger folded (re-entrant) Orthophonic horn with much smaller front doors than did the unpopular 4-5. The 4-7 provided remarkably good performance for such a small machine, and it had a much more substantial appearance than the 4-3.  The 4-7 was available only in a mahogany finish, and included an automatic brake and nickel-plated hardware. It was a moderate success when introduced, and production was continued for over a year, ending in late 1927. It remained in the Victor Catalog the following year, indicating that quite a few remained in factory inventory.
The original 1926 selling price of the 4-7 was $125.00, which equates to about $1,800.00 in today's money. Based on factory information, an estimated total of 65,000 Victrola 4-7's were manufactured, however based on serial numbers of surviving examples, at least 78,000 of these machines came off the assembly lines. Toward the end of production, the 4-7 was shipped primarily to Latin American markets, and many surviving examples with serial numbers above 75000 have dealer information indicating that they were sold in Mexico or South America. So it is quite possible that a late block of serial numbers (not shown on factory tallies) was reserved for export shipments.
Some examples with a "VV 4-7 E" dataplate have been reported, which implies that these machines were built solely for export. No further information on "E" suffix 4-7 models is available.
The 4-7 was also available with an electric motor option (VE 4-7) for $35.00 extra. A total of 4,200 electric versions were built. 

The current collector database shows the earliest existent VV 4-7 to be S/N 511 and the latest to be S/N 78595.

The earliest existent VE 4-7 is S/N 643 and the latest is S/N 4688

Do you own a Victrola 4-7? Please take a moment and enter some basic information about your machine into the collector's database by clicking here. No personal information is required.