1931 Brunswick 12A mini console
 

I just acquired this from a friend. The set is so small it can be described as a large tombstone radio on legs! It may be hard to believe, but the set is entirely original. I spent about 4 hours refreshing the cabinet. The original floral grill cloth is very delicate and I haven't seen another example with it still in place. It's unusual in that the small center knob is on/off/volume and pulls out in three positions. With each position, the dial lights in three different colors, and tones. The large tuning dial requires a gently pressing inwards to activate. The rather odd chassis is difficult to repair and eventually I will have that done. I just get a whisper out of it right now. I like it just as a 1930's piece of art!

That's a neat little radio! Its interesting that they used one knob to control everything on this radio! :yes::scratch2:

Purty l'il feller ! Methinks Ya done Good !

I think it's noteworthy that Brunswick is one of the very few companies that built radios in that era and is still around, and not just in name. I love gimmicks like color changing.

A real bummer to work on. It's tight in there.

Thanks guys, and yes, I've heard about these chassis'. It's the reason I've stayed away from early AC sets. One local repairman I know passed on working on it. I'm going to keep trying, but I have a feeling it might just stay as a static display.

***Update - A long time friend repairman checked the chassis out. After quite a while trying to figure out the odd chassis he pinned the problem to an open resistor and choke. With the repair made, the set came to life and plays as new. It's super sensitive and gets stations all over the dial. I can't believe this old chassis, which likely hasn't been repaired since the '40's is back playing once again without having to dig into that crazy chassis! Amazing how well built things were back then to be alive once again after probably 70 or so years.

Your radio situation is kind of like the situation with my old Westinghouse WR-10 Tombstone radio I recently acquired. The original cabinet on it was shot beyond repair but the chassis although a little rusty was still clean inside and had never been repaired in its entire history as it still even had its original cloth cord intact yet on the chassis.

Anyways I cleaned up the rust on the chassis and the tubes (which were absolutely filthy), and went to put the radio back together to test it, and it wouldn't power on, did some testing and it turned out the original cord had an open somewhere on the neutral side, so I wired on a temporary cord for testing purposes and the radio came to life and it was working perfectly with its original Dry Electrolytic Power Supply caps still in place.

The interesting thing is is that my radio I got going had previously been sitting in an old Farmhouse that the roof to it had collapsed 20 years ago which is why the cabinet was shot and chassis was somewhat rusty but considering the conditions that the radio was stored in for the past 20 years the radio still worked with not much work to get it going.

Great story! I've actually heard many of them in all my years in the hobby. Many of these early sets were so overbuilt that they proved to be even better than the engineers likely ever anticipated! I have a '28 Radiola 60 that is still working fine with no signs of any repairs made.

That's amazing! :yes:

A friend of mine has an old Radiola Cabinet minus the guts but the cabinet is still in good shape yet.

It's actually all not that uncommon with early AC sets from the late '20's into the early '30's. You either get lucky and it plays as-is or you have to excavate the tar filled cans which contain the caps. A tedious, messy job. Early AC Radiola's are the most likely to play as-is. They were so well built. The thing is that they're VERY common and have moderate value. An empty cabinet is not worth a whole lot, but definitely has value. A person who has the set with a bad cabinet will surely be happy to find it!

Well sadly enough the cabinet is just being used for storage by my friend and unfortunately the whole front fascade where the guts would of went including the speaker grille area were all cut out of the cabinet to make it so that it could be used as a storage cabinet, so all that's left of the cabinet's fascade is the doors that covered the radio's tuning dial and speaker.

I see. Well, at least it was repurposed for something useful.

Well I actually tried to look up the model of Radiola it would of been based on the cabinet shape and everything and I couldn't find anything that matched, which is weird.

I have the big book on the history of Radiola, which is great, and found their are many, many models produced in the '20's. If I had a pic I could help you.

I wont be seeing my friend until wednesday so I'll have to check with him then about a picture of the cabinet.

OK so here's a picture of my friend's radio cabinet.

Hopefully you or someone on here can identify the maker of this radio (which has long since been gutted).

Although it's similar to '28 Radiola cabinets, I couldn't find an exact match. Many other companies followed suit with that basic style. I will need to look further into my 1920's achieves to possibly find it. I'll do that soon. It also might be a custom cabinet. That was popular back then. A slew of cabinet shops in the '20's/early '30's would offer various high/low-boy designs in which you could install your radio chassis. They were often more unique than the radio companies offerings.

Okay, I went through everything I had and couldn't find that cabinet design. Again, it's similar to Radiola cabinets, but there's no match. I'm going to say it is a custom cabinet, but I'll let you know if I come up with anything else.
The bottom line is that type of set, from that era, even if it was complete, would be of very moderate value. Collectors typically shun large legged consoles. Being it's just an empty cabinet, it has very little value to radio collectors. Finding someone who has a chassis for it is nil. It's value is as an antique cabinet for repurposing, which would not be very much.

OK thanks for letting me know.

I wonder if it was another brand that was similar to or a copycat of Radiola like Atwater Kent, Stromberg Carlson, or Philco? I know those companies made radios in highboy/lowboy style cabinets like that during that time period as well.

Maybe we could look into those leads?

Radiola was an RCA product and RCA was born the radio pattent holding company/ bastard child of GE and Westinghouse...from the beginning up to WWII there were a number of RCA products that got sold as GE and or Westinghouse products with only a moderate cabinet restyle to mask it... I'd look at GE and Westinghouse first as they were more copy cats than anyone you mentioned. Philco hated RCA so much they used Loctal tubes (which were a Sylvania pattent IIRC) instead of Octals which were an RCA pattent... Philco was no copy cat of RCA...Heck in that era it was the other way around. RCA was forced to copy the successful concept of the budget Philco 80 cathedral radio.

I love '30's and early '40's radios but RCA and it's "partners" are way low on my list. RCA's only claim to fame was the first AC and superhet radios. Otherwise they had nothing to offer in radio innovation or styling and were almost always overpriced. My Zeniths and Philcos are head and shoulders above the RCA group in that price range. Even a Sears outperformed them! Golden throat indeed!

I have to agree with the exception of 1938. That line of classic John Vassos designed art-deco sets are awesome in both looks and performance. Before and after I find them rather dull with the exception of the rare Vassos chrome bar-cradled sets.