In August of 1906 the most significant change
in the phonograph as a home entertainment machine took place since
the time when talking machines and phonographs first began to be
marketed to consumers a decade earlier. A new product-line called
the Victor-Victrola was introduced and it aesthetically helped the
talking machine to more easily find a place in the home. The talking
machine's external horn was gone -- moved inside the cabinet --
and in so doing the Victrola in popular culture became fine furniture,
a musical instrument, and no longer a talking machine.
Period piece phonographs would become highly
advertised options in the late teens and 1920's and wealthy homes
would be displayed "suiting the music to the room." These
musical instruments would now be "worthy of a place
in any home."
Victor Talking Machine Company,
1910
Victor Talking Machine Company,
1913
"Worthy of a place in any
home." Period Grafonola - Italian Renaissance and Adam Designs,
The Ladies' Home Journal, October 1918
Period Grafonola - Chinese Chippendale,
The Ladies' Home Journal, March 1919
Period Grafonola - Queen Anne,
The Literary Digest, February 8, 1919
Period Grafonola - Louis XVI
Design 1919
Italian Renaissance Milano, Sonora
1921
Brunswick first by "achieving
perfect rendition...in phonographic reproduction...now turns its
talent to combining fine music with fine furniture." 1922
Brunswick - a noteworthy combination
of fine music with fine furniture, 1922
Aeolian-Vocalion (early Georgian
Period) advertisement, 1923
Aeolian-Vocalion (Quenn Anne
Period) advertisement, 1923
Aeolian-Vocalion (Elizabethan
Period) advertisement, 1923
Brunswick Brochure, 1920
Brunswick Brochure, 1920
Brunswick Brochure, 1920
"Finer phonographs are unknown."
Brunswick Brochure, 1920
Christmas Message from the World's
Greatest Artists, Victrola 1919
"The Victrola -- the only
instrument that brings the world's greatest artists into your home,"
Victrola Brochure, 1919
"The finest gift of all!"
"The most brilliant opera house in the world can offer no such
great company of artists as that shown above...Victrola" 1924
