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Victor Type M ("Monarch")

RARITY: ¤¤   VALUE:  ¤¤¤ 

The Victor M (advertised as the Monarch) was introduced in 1901 as a high-end, high-performance model, and sold new for $35.00, which equates to about $1,250.00 in today's money. It featured a large 10" turntable and a powerful 2-spring motor, placing its performance far above the other early products in the 1901 Victor lineup. The cabinet was made of quarter-sawn oak.  The "M" underwent several cabinet and component design upgrades during its 4-year production run. The earliest examples used an integral horn and tonearm configuration (left) and a threaded record hold-down knob on the spindle (note: different cabinet trims and sizes were produced during this timeframe, which will vary from the photo at left).  The machine was later upgraded with an optional rigid-arm design (1902) and finally to a taper-arm the following year. Machines with the taper arm option were advertised as the "Victor III", while the older front-mount designs were promoted as "M" models, even though all variations of this model were stamped as "M" on the dataplate. The cabinet was also enlarged around this time (right). The price was increased by $5.00 in 1903. A variety of horn options were available for the rigid-arm and taper-arm models, ranging from a simple stamped steel horn to various flower and solid wood horns. In 1905, the "M" nomenclature was completely discontinued, the taper-arm became standard, and this model became the Victor III. At least 58,000 of these phonographs were produced per factory record; it was certainly a very popular seller, especially true given its high price tag.
Early Victor M machines will have "pre-dog" Victor dataplates. Examples with serial numbers as high as 89,000 have been reported, but this data is questionable and has not been verified.

At present, there is not a good correlation between serial number and production date for this model. However, based on surviving examples it can be estimated that serial numbers below 12,000 were produced in 1901 and early 1902.

The current survival database shows the earliest existent Victor M to be S/N 502 and the latest to be S/N 58266. See information above for serial numbers above this range.

Do you own a Victor M? 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.