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Victor Type R "Royal"

RARITY: ¤¤   VALUE:  ¤¤¤ 

The Victor R (called the Royal in the advertising literature) was introduced in 1902, at a time when Victor's product line was improving and expanding very rapidly. It was intended as an introductory model for budget-minded buyers, and featured a small 7-inch turntable and single spring motor with a basic oak cabinet (left).  It sold new for $15.00, which equates to approximately $450.00 in today's money. A stamped steel horn was standard along with an Exhibition Soundbox. Toward the end of production, the "R" was updated with a larger, more detailed cabinet, and featured a Rigid Arm or Tapered Arm configuration, along with a choice of horn designs (right) before it was discontinued in 1904.  It should be noted that there was a great deal of "design overlap" between the later versions of the Victor R, the Victor Z and Victor I models, some of which shared identical cabinets and components. This is likely due to the fact that the factory was simply churning-out these machines (and using-up available parts) without much regard for product continuity or model positioning at a time when demand for phonographs was growing at a frenzied pace.  The factory fireof 1904 also contributed to this confusion, and certainly muddled product configurations and continuity; therefore the process of determining accurate estimates becomes very challenging today. Based on serial numbers of surviving examples, approximately 44,000 units were made during the 2 year run.

The current survival database shows the earliest existent Victor R to be S/N 999 and the latest to be S/N 44294.

Do you own a Victor R? 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.