Yes, I know, I have a thing with rough looking gear sometimes.....but this set just seemed like something special, and I bought it for $5!

I just got it back from a local tube radio guru, who completely restored it (and for a bargain price :) ). This guy has been in the backs of literally thousands of sets and had absolutely no idea who made it or where it came from! It is a TRF set, late 20s/early 30s in design. The circuitry was so strange in the set that he literally had to look through thousands of schematics to find one even remotely close, and he had tro make educated guesses as to what some of the components were, because he'd never seen anything like it. Which is very strange fror an old US made tube radio.

His best guess is that it could be a CBS columbia or a product of Custom Radio, a small company that only lasted a year and built one-off sets during the late 20s. Not knowing what the devil it is I guess makes it that more special. And despite its appearance, it is solid and now plays flawlessly.....for an old TRF rig.

I've decided not to refinish it, as something about it seems either somewhat engaging, or eerie, I haven't decided which.

Can anyone help to tell me what the devil this is?

Inside

Hi Kam;

How very very cool. Nice class project you took on there and I think you made the right decision not to refinish the cab. Keep it original at least until you find out what you got.

I have to think your best bet would be to post on yahoo groups and the like that specialize in that hobby. Maybe a google search on old wireless dealers would turn up some guys to ask. The pics are good and somebody should be able to ID it.

Keep us posted when you find out more about it...

Lefty

Tim,

Good score. BTW, I think that is an early table radio. :)

Actually being a TRF set I think that is a real plus.

Rob

I am thinking it is more eerie than anything. It should have vampire bats flying around it :p: I'd dump it and get a nice Bose system for the table top. :D That thing has not one bit of plastic, it can't be any good.

Originally posted by VinylHanger
I am thinking it is more eerie than anything. It should have vampire bats flying around it :p:

Looks even more creepy in a dimly lit room :bat:

:D

Originally posted by Lefty
Hi Kam;

I think you made the right decision not to refinish the cab. Keep it original at least until you find out what you got.

Lefty

I dunno, it might look pretty good painted white with a hunk of the upholstery from Aunt Marthas sofa for a grille cloth :p:

Originally posted by Eric H


I dunno, it might look pretty good painted white with a hunk of the upholstery from Aunt Marthas sofa for a grille cloth :p:

Tim,

I think Eric is onto something here. If you are gonna paint it do it right. Be sure not to clean or sand the item to be preserved first and be sure to use a brush. Put on a minimum of two coats. Make sure you paint it outside on a hot sunny day directly in the sun. Don't try to wipe up runs, this will add to the value later on.

Make sure you also paint the knobs! Try to get a bit of paint splatter on the power cord so that future owners can tell it was painted as a presevative measure sometime along the way. :)

Rob

Check this out....

I just received an email from a radio collector in Italy about this set, from a message I posted on some antique radio board I found through Google:

Hello Tim,
all I can say about your radio is the brand: Mercury.
Nothing more about model or what else.
Here is the pic of a set like yours, which was sold on ebay about a couple of years ago.

Cheers,

Luca

So, now the detective work gets that much more interesting. The cabinet on my radio was falling apart when I bought it, and 2/3 of the bottom was missing, but we managed to bring it back just far enough to be sturdy enough to house its speaker and chassis and be completely solid.

The Collectors Guide to Antique Radios mentions nothing about a Mercury company, or where it might be headquartered. It does have a Rola model K speaker....25 ohms!

Now this kinda stuff sure can make a hobby fun :)

This keeps getting more and more hopeful! :)

Hi Tim,
here is also the side and the back of the radio, in the case you need some
extra infos for your restoration.
It was sold one the second half of January 2000. I gave attention to this
item, and maybe I can find ebay item # in my mail archive. This way we can
discover who won it, and you might ask that guy directly (I can still
remember his name since he's a forum member, but I want to be sure of that).
I'll see what I can do.

Luca


************

This means to me that this set can't be something altogether too common. Here's another pic that he sent.....I'd say this is the same thing!

But Tim,

Not to rain on your parade but....it doesn't have a catylin case, so as a collectible radio how can it be worth anything? ;)

Rob

Whadaya mean??? I know dark brown Catalin plastic when I see it! :p:

Thought I'd bump this thread.....still love this radio :)

THAT'S all that matters....YOU love the radio....to those that don't, remember the immortal words of Sir John Gielgud in "Arthur"- "Go Screw Yourself"....white paint, indeed !! Hmmmph !! <grin> -Sandy G.

Hi, Kamakiri... What you have is a Mercury Mantel Set, otherwise known as a Mercury Jr. It was made in 1931 by the H.M. Kipp company, Ltd. of Toronto, a company which tried radio between 1923 and 1932. There was an article on this company in the November, 1994 AWA Bulletin, which has a picture of your set and the schematic.

I have been active over on the antique radio board, and thought that I would join the group!

Amazing! Thanks so much for helping me to put a name to this face!

Did the article mention anything more about the company? I assume this set is fairly rare......and do you know if since it was made in Toronto, if it was manufactured for 25 cycle current, or did the company export to the US?

Thanks again for posting! :beerchug:

Hi again... The writer of the article was Dr. Robert P. Murray, from Winnipeg MB. He didn't mention anything about exports to this country; maybe the sets were sold only in Canada. According to the article, the H. M. Kipp Company was in the bicycle and motorcycle business, and started selling the Mercury Super Ten in 1923. It was designed by Charles A. Lowry, who was an engineering student at the University of Toronto. Lowry left the company in 1927, for a job at De Forest Radio of Canada. He later worked for Stromberg-Carlson (both in the US and Austrailia) and Philco of Canada.

Kipp next manufactured the Mercury Super Power Ten, in 1929-30. The Mercury Jr. was next. Also in 1931, Kipp distributed the Echophone S5 (a US made set) and put their own label on it. At the end of 1931, the company was offering a series of console models, and soliciting dealer franchises. Apparently these were the last radios made under the Mercury name. The author does not say who did the design work after Lowry left the company. It is interesting to note that the Mercury sets which Lowry designed were all superhetrodynes, and the Mercury Jr. was not. The Kipp Company was sued for patent infringement in 1926, so they may have had to stop producing superhets.

So Tim, let me ask your feelings on this. Do you feel on this set that I should have the cabinet professionally restored, or leave it as is?

Hi again, Kamakiri.... Restoring the cabinet is a tough call. If it is very bad, you might have no choice but to redo it. (It looks like the veneer is coming off the front panel). I also would assume that this set is fairly rare; the number of them that were made is probably small compared with similar sets from Philco, RCA, and others. So far, we know of three; the writer of the article that I quoted from had one, the one on E-bay is number two, and yours is the third. It would be interesting to find out if any other Canadian or US collectors have one in their collectons.