The End of the Collector Mindset

[LizzieMaine]

"Other than that, though, it's a mircale plastic!"

There were a lot of self-destructing plastics during the early phase of their development. Celluloid was always prone to decomposition, spelling the doom of everything from colorful dice to dresser sets. And then there's tenite -- another material popular with radio manfuacturers in the prewar era. Tenite was a Kodak product, originally developed for inexpensive camera bodies, but the radio people loved it because it could be used to make interesting "swirl effect" dial bezels and translucent knobs. RCA and Philco used the material heavily during the 1938-42 era -- pretty much every better RCA Victor set used a tenite bezel, and when Philco began using push-button tuning on its sets the buttons were tenite. And away from the radio business, the first View-Masters were made of tenite.

Tenite shrinks and warps with age, and this is accelerated by heat. As soon as any tenite product goes into an attic, it's doomed. There are untold numbers of really fine RCA radios that will never be restored because their tenite bezels are ruined and nobody makes a repro replacement. It's not as well-publicized problem as the Catalin issue, but if anything it's far more prevalent.

Some years ago, a neighbor gave me a 1938 RCA console which was stored well, and then "restored" some time in the 1960s by being glopped over with a thick layer of "antiquing paint." That paint was indescribably ugly -- but it did protect the bezel, and when I cleaned it off I was amazed to see that it didn't have a crack in it. It's the only intact tenite RCA bezel I've ever seen. That radio is now in my office, and I'm listening to it right now.

 

[vitanola]

I read a couple pieces on the matter yesterday, according to which the material was also subject to discoloration from the heat of the tubes (and that heat shields, while effective, were often made of asbestos), that it might slowly dissolve in water, that prolonged exposure to heat rendered it brittle, and that its expansion and contraction due to temperature changes was far less than the materials from which the chassis were made, resulting in stripped and broken screw holes.

However, I don’t believe everything I read, but if even part of the above is reliable, a person might conclude that many a Catalin radio cabinet didn’t survive more than a couple-three decades.

Apparently newer plastics post-War pretty well spelled the end of Catalin radio production.

Yes, which is rather a shame, for at its best this plastic has a jewel-like quality.

At it's worst it is an Emerson 520.

 

[vitanola]

"Other than that, though, it's a mircale plastic!"

There were a lot of self-destructing plastics during the early phase of their development. Celluloid was always prone to decomposition, spelling the doom of everything from colorful dice to dresser sets. And then there's tenite -- another material popular with radio manfuacturers in the prewar era. Tenite was a Kodak product, originally developed for inexpensive camera bodies, but the radio people loved it because it could be used to make interesting "swirl effect" dial bezels and translucent knobs. RCA and Philco used the material heavily during the 1938-42 era -- pretty much every better RCA Victor set used a tenite bezel, and when Philco began using push-button tuning on its sets the buttons were tenite. And away from the radio business, the first View-Masters were made of tenite.

Tenite shrinks and warps with age, and this is accelerated by heat. As soon as any tenite product goes into an attic, it's doomed. There are untold numbers of really fine RCA radios that will never be restored because their tenite bezels are ruined and nobody makes a repro replacement. It's not as well-publicized problem as the Catalin issue, but if anything it's far more prevalent.

Some years ago, a neighbor gave me a 1938 RCA console which was stored well, and then "restored" some time in the 1960s by being glopped over with a thick layer of "antiquing paint." That paint was indescribably ugly -- but it did protect the bezel, and when I cleaned it off I was amazed to see that it didn't have a crack in it. It's the only intact tenite RCA bezel I've ever seen. That radio is now in my office, and I'm listening to it right now.

The Tenite bezels and buttons which were used on some pretty ordinary Pholco sets are being reproduced. I could never understand why the RCA bezels are mot available. The sets which used them are pretty fine and relatively desirable.

Of course, I personally believe that the only sets with slide rule dials which are worth fiddling with were made by General Motors Radio. All others are far too modern...

 

[tonyb]

View attachment 126355

That Emerson’s styling looks ’50s to me, which has me thinking it might have been among the last of the Catalin radio cabinets, or that its designer was on the vanguard, for better or for worse.

EDIT: I just looked it up. It’s a Raymond Loewy design. That alone lends it cachet, deserved or not.

 

[vitanola]

That Emerson’s styling looks ’50s to me, which has me thinking it might have been among the last of the Catalin radio cabinets, or that its designer was on the vanguard, for better or for worse.

EDIT: I just looked it up. It’s a Raymond Loewy design. That alone lends it cachet, deserved or not.

Yes, but the 510 (curved plywood) and the 520 (Catalin) have always been the absolute dogs of the hobby. Nice examples of the 520 may be had for less than $200 if one looks carefully. The 510, which is somewhat leas common, may generally be had for half of that figure.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Tenite bezels and buttons which were used on some pretty ordinary Pholco sets are being reproduced. I could never understand why the RCA bezels are mot available. The sets which used them are pretty fine and relatively desirable.

Of course, I personally believe that the only sets with slide rule dials which are worth fiddling with were made by General Motors Radio. All others are far too modern...

What, no Victor Micro-Syncrhonous?

 

[tonyb]

The Tenite bezels and buttons which were used on some pretty ordinary Pholco sets are being reproduced. I could never understand why the RCA bezels are mot available. The sets which used them are pretty fine and relatively desirable.

Of course, I personally believe that the only sets with slide rule dials which are worth fiddling with were made by General Motors Radio. All others are far too modern...

I’d think it will soon be feasible, if it isn’t already, to reproduce such things at reasonable cost right here in Mom’s basement.

It has long been possible, of course, but perhaps not at a reasonable effort and a realistic cost.

 

[vitanola]

What, no Victor Micro-Syncrhonous?

Well, I wouldn't exactly call that a "Slide Rule" dial in the sense that it was used on those 1937 sets.

Even so, everyone SHOULD have one of the Victor Micro-synchronous combinations (and it sometimes seems as if everyone DID!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Given the premium pricing on the Victor sets when they were new, it amazes me how often I run across them in the wild, even today. I'm convinced there was a very industrious Victor dealer serving my area in 1929-31. Philcos and Atwater Kents from that era turn up, butI have never found an RCA or GE set of that vintage in the wild.

 

[vitanola]

Are you serious? No Radiola 33, 44, 46, or 62 sets? They all sold well enough here in the Midwest. Of the 1929-30 season only the RCA combinations are scarce around here.

Do Majestic 90 series sets turn up in Maine? We are lousey with them. Lyric, Sparton, Apex, Freshman, Zenith and Bosch are also frequently found along with the ubiquitous AK and Philco "Neutrodyne Plus" sets.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Nope, I never see any of the AC Radiolas. Early tin-box Philcos are common, though, and the 1929-30 Philco consoles are very common.

I have a Majestic 52 with the skinny legs sitting in my spare bedroom right now with a lot of dirty clothes draped over it. My mother found it at a yard sale back in the 90s and gave it to me, but it's never worked. No B+, and the volume control is bad, and I've tried to work on it several times before giving up in frustration. You know how those things are.

 

[vitanola]

Nope, I never see any of the AC Radiolas. Early tin-box Philcos are common, though, and the 1929-30 Philco consoles are very common.

I have a Majestic 52 with the skinny legs sitting in my spare bedroom right now with a lot of dirty clothes draped over it. My mother found it at a yard sale back in the 90s and gave it to me, but it's never worked. No B+, and the volume control is bad, and I've tried to work on it several times before giving up in frustration. You know how those things are.

That chassis is indeed a bear to work on. As you have doubtless noted, the rf coil shields and the coils themselves must be dismounted from the chassis to get at the leaky paper condenser and drifted or open resistors.

I restored one. Once.

Never again!

Shame, for they are attractive sets and decent performers It seems that all of the 1930-31 midget sets are bears to work on save for the Pholco 20 and the GM "Little General".

 

[tonyb]

Another perspective, this from a longtime editor of a British antiques trade rag.

https://imacq.com/antiques-are-here-to-stay/

So much of this sort of thing becomes self-fulfilling. Aspen, Colorado has some of the highest-priced real estate anywhere because it has some of the highest-priced real estate anywhere. Having been there, I can offer that it isn't because it's the most spectacular place you'll ever visit.

Prices for "brown furniture" are down because prices for brown furniture are down.

There are factors we can point to -- such as people changing residences with greater frequency than they once did, and the proliferation of cheap but stylish furnishings available at places like IKEA, most notably. But people do indeed follow fads, and if old, heavy furniture is out of favor, that's all most people need to know to avoid it, or at least to pay much less for it than they would have a decade or more ago.

All it would take to turn it around is a hot young pop star or two whose work I will likely ever know to furnish his or her or their multi-million-dollar pads with a few pieces of Victorian furniture.

 

[tonyb]

From page 225 of Maureen Stanton’s “Killer Stuff and Tons of Money; Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America” ...

“The more nobody wants it, the more nobody wants it — the opposite of irrational exuberance at an auction. Value in antiques is more subjective and fluid than in cars or cameras or clothes, things with fixed or at least comparable values and quantifiable manufacturing costs. Selling an antique, often a sui generis object, can require a tricky and artful blend of factors — timing, perception, salesmanship, context, credibility— not to mention the imperceptible factors that motivate buyers — emotion, impulse, wealth.”

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

All it would take to turn it around is a hot young pop star or two whose work I will likely ever know to furnish his or her or their multi-million-dollar pads with a few pieces of Victorian furniture.

Now that's really sad.

 

[tonyb]

Now that's really sad.

Maybe. But really no sadder than those who take their sartorial cues from, say, some fictional archeologist in a large fedora and a weathered leather jacket.

Could be that our hypothetical pop star hires interior designers who really know how to work antique furniture into a space for modern living. Could be that “the look” would be deserving of emulation.

And I kinda like weathered leather jackets. And large fedoras.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

True at that. People whose cultural references come almost entirely from movies, TV shows, or video games (and practically nowhere else) has become one of my pet peeves in recent years. Examples: I was listening to Edith Piaf's Tu Es Partout on youTube and practically every single comment had some sort of reference to Saving Private Ryan. I have a mahogany bookcase that belonged to my parents and a friend of mine refers to it as an "Andy Griffith" bookshelf because, apparently, a similar one can be seen in Andy's home in many of the episodes of the Andy Griffith Show.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was complaining about "Lucy Phones" on eBay twenty years ago. Bah.

 

[tonyb]

True at that. People whose cultural references come almost entirely from movies, TV shows, or video games has become one of my pet peeves in recent years. Examples: I was listening to Edith Piaf's Tu Es Partout on youTube and practically every single comment had some sort of reference to Saving Private Ryan. I have a mahogany bookcase that belonged to my parents and a friend of mine refers to it as an "Andy Griffith" bookshelf because, apparently, a similar one can be seen in Andy's home in many of the episodes of the Andy Griffith Show.

Not to mention all those cues we pick up unconsciously. Some things are just in the air, and those who would claim to be the originators are almost always either deluding themselves or attempting to delude everyone else. Life imitates art, and vice versa.

 

[tonyb]

Just read a piece that appeared in Architectural Digest late last year claiming that “traditional” interiors are making a comeback — think chintz, formal balance, skirted chairs, and (gasp!) antiques.

The pendulum does swing, I guess, but it rarely settles in the same spot it ever before occupied.

My life would be diminished not a bit if I never had a skirted chair or so much as a yard of chintz. And formal, “matchy-matchy” arrangements usually bore me. I do welcome this renewed interest in antiques, though.

My own preferences lean toward early- to mid-20th century styles, many of which harken back to earlier styles. I believe that’s mostly due to a comfort born of familiarity. It’s the world I grew up in, in the homes and public spaces of my youth.