1950s Stromberg-Carlson TV
 

Hello everyone today I was at my friend's antique shop near me and I saw a gloss black painted cabinet with some oriental touches to it and so I opened the cabinet and sure enough it was a 1950s Stromberg-Carlson TV set with the unusual Oriental Design Cabinet, and he has it for sale in his shop and I thought I would let you guys take a gander at the set and see if you guys would be interested in possibly coming and making an offer for the set its in extremely well preserved condition in fact I would say its in near mint condition, it has the original back cover intact and in very good to near mint condition, it has all of the original knobs still intact and in near mint condition, the original cord is still intact and in good condition (no cracking or exposed wires.) I have several pictures of the unit and pardon the crappy quality I was using my camera on my phone as that's all I had on me at the time, the TV looks a lot better in person.

If this thread is in the wrong forum feel free to move it, as I wasn't sure where to place this thread, and this seemed to be the closest match for the time being, until told otherwise.

That is a latter (though not the last) version of S-C's Chinese classic, circa 1953. Prior to that, Chinese Classics had been combo sets. This is the model occasionally seen in the Albrights' apartment in My Little Margie.

That's good to know, How rare are these sets exactly?

Depends on the area of the country. Around here they're plentiful. If memory serves, Stromberg had a plant in Rochester NY.

Well I'm smack dab in the middle of the midwest in northern Indiana and this is the first time I've ever come across an oriental themed TV let alone one from the 1950s, in fact anything by Stromberg-Carlson here seems to be kind of scarce around where I live, I used to have an early 1960s Stromberg-Carlson Stereo Amplifier that had Push-Pull 7027As which I got rid of because it shorted out on me but I wish I would of kept it, and that's about all I've seen so far of Stromberg-Carlson related stuff near me besides this TV.

I think just about every type of vintage TV is comparatively plentiful in NY, which was basically the birthplace of US television manufacturing (and use). Here in the Pacific Northwest, it would be unusual to find anything by Stromberg Carlson.

Scarcity doesn't automatically equate to high value, of course. As a rule, serious TV collectors tend to be more interested in the earlier TVs with smaller picture tubes -- especially (and these are truly rare) any pre-WWII sets. That said, Stromberg Carlson was known for building quality sets and I imagine that one would perform well after you gave it the usual electronic overhaul (which all old TVs require).

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

What's odd is that my friend who has this TV in his antique shop said that the auction he bought the TV from had the TV plugged in and running (although not sure how good it was running though and I had asked him if I could plug it in to see how it was running and he just told me to wait until another time (it was close to their closing time) but when I told him that the TV was more than likely going to need an overhaul electronically he kind of acted a bit surprised and asked me how much that would cost and what all it would entail and I told him it would mean replacing all of the original capacitors in it which would number somewhere near 50-100 capacitors and I told him that the capacitors aren't very expensive in of them selves but the labor involved will be what will cost you because of all of the time it will take to locate a schematic for the unit and then get a parts list around and then actually ordering the parts and then having to swap out all of the old capacitors a couple at a time and then testing the unit in between to see how well it works after replacing those capacitors and what not, etc., etc. and he has a price of about $650 on the TV which I know is quite high for what it is but I'm sure after hearing what all is involved in actually properly restoring the TV he's probably going to be reconsidering his price a bit.

I totally agree with you, living up in Northwest Indiana closer to Chicago there is a little bit better selection and quantity of the vintage stuff, but you would think that by living in Indiana, you would at least be able to find something by Meck or muntz but no I guess Plymouth Rochester and monticello are just too close... You have a better chance of finding a Hoffman then a muntz and don't even expect to find a Dumont anywhere

Yes, I agree and what's interesting is that in the Elkhart, South Bend, and Goshen, Indiana areas I have hardly ever come across any vintage TVs, let alone vintage and antique radios, I've only ever come across pre-1950s radios 3 times in my life and none of them were in very good shape, the rest of the radios I've come across were post 1950s radios, and as far as vintage TVs go, forget about it, I've only ever come across 1 vintage TV in the wild near me and that was a 1962 Philco Townhouse TV that I ended up buying for $15 at a local antique mall and I'm currently in the middle of restoring it. and then a friend of mine from church gave me a 1957 GE 9T001 TV but again it wasn't originally from around here, it came from Tennessee originally. And the only Indiana made radios I've ever come across in the wild was a 1952 Arvin Clock Radio that was made by Arvin Industries of Columbus, Indiana (That I gave to my pastor to use) and a 1932 U.S. Gloritone Cathedral Radio that was made by the United States Television and Radio Corporation of Marion, Indiana, that a friend of mine bought for me that was electronically restored already including a brand new reproduction cloth cord but then the person made the mistake of trying to carry it by the speaker area and put his fingers through the speaker cloth and the speaker, which I had to patch the speaker and now I'm currently in the middle of trying to get the cabinet refinished and then getting some replacement grille cloth so I can finish restoring this old cathedral radio.

As a TV for a TV collector it's probably a $75-$175 set as is on a good day. As a cabinet for an interior decorator it is probably worth somewhere between that and what the owner wants for it (assuming there is a local decorator into that).

As far as a TV Collectors Price I figured that the price you gave was probably what it was worth but as an interior decor piece I'm kind of surprised its worth that much. So I'm guessing that if the unit was properly restored electronically it would be worth more as a TV Collector piece? I'm asking because you had said, "as is" for the price you quoted for what its worth currently.

Restored it's probably a $150-$275 set.

Decorators are primarily eccentric people that will pay stupid money (since they often have little concept of value) for something that they think completes their concept.

I'm not sure that "Chinese Modern" motif is still popular anywhere, it was for a short time in the early 50's.

I saw similar set a couple years ago,it was yellow with the painted doors, well not really a set, just the gutted out hull of a set, which is, unfortunately, all most people would want.

I wish someone would save this set but at that price it's just going to sit there, or they'll gut it and make a liquor cabinet out of it.

As a collector, I would hesitate to pay extra for a "restored" set unless I could clearly see that the quality of workmanship was superior to what I could expect to obtain. I have seen many "hack jobs" in flea markets and "antique stores" that would clearly, IMHO reduce the value of the item. :( Also, Why would I pay extra for someone else to have the fun. :scratch2:

jr

There is a decent percentage of radio and TV collectors who have zero electronic repair skills and no desire to learn them....To those collectors who merely want a neat old TV to watch restored and working is worth a premium...I flip sets to cater to locals in that category, and do repair work for those that already own the set they want to use.

As someone who can do electronic restorations and enjoys doing such, but has not learned cabinet restoration a pre-restored set holds almost no additional value (aside from knowing nothing major is burnt out) unless it's been made cosmetically near perfect.

I have one of these sets. However mine has the RED motif and it is on the outside of the doors. I am thinking somebody flipped the doors around on this one to put the Chinese decorations on the inside. I got my set for $50 with a bad crt. I have a new crt for it but as yet the set remains unrestored.

1954 Stromberg-Carlson catalog photo.

-Steve D.

Well maybe this one was somehow designed slightly different that some of them (someone did mention earlier that there was an early and a late version of this TV and they said that the one that my friend has is the late version) maybe the early vs. the late version might have someting to do with the way the motif is done?

Enhanced & righted the photo of the inside of the door for comparison.

-Steve D.

It looks to me like maybe someone switched the doors around when they put it together years ago, because the handles are on the side that supposedly is suppposed to be inside the cabinet.