Slightly OT - Edison Radios & Radio Phonographs Adverts

[Valecnik]

That's what I like about this forum. Post a few brochures and within a couple days, thanks to the posting of ChuckA and Greg and with comments by others, we have a a history, including pictures of all the Edison Radio and Radio/Phono models and a great deal of history of them provided too.

Greg, perhaps you could post another picture of the R6 with the doors closed. I think it looks really elegant with the doors closed. Noone would ever know it's a radio, except for the cord hangind out the back.

My R6 had an enclosed back with an elaborate antenna built into the backpanel and probably had some cloth over it at one time. Greg, does yours also have this backpanel? Also I'm curious where you found yours and how many of these models you might think actually survived.

[gregbogantz]

Bruce, the pictures I posted are ones I saved from eBay listings. I don't own an R-6 or an R-7 although I have worked on those chassis for a friend of mine who lives near me and who IS a collector of Edison radios and phonos. He has all the Edison radio and radio/phono models except for the C-1 and the R-8 which was apparently never actually sold. I don't have a good color photo of an R-6 with the doors closed, but attached are some more color photos of the R-7 showing it with the doors closed and open. The R-7 looked very similar to the R-6 except that it was a narrower cabinet. Note the two-tone tinted lacquer finish which was very popular in the early 1930s. A third picture shows the back of an R-6 with its back grille panel in place. Yes, some (if not all) of the Edison radios had back panels similar to this. I'm not sure if all the models had back grilles as it's not documented anywhere that I know of, and the company's published literature doesn't show the models from the back. Most of the sets found today do NOT have a back, so to have one is a rare find. The backs were nothing more than coarse screen cloth tacked to a plain wooden frame. They were non-functional to the radio and I think they just got misplaced when the set was serviced. The model ID tag on Edison sets was a metal tag tacked to the back of the cabinet as shown in the fourth picture. All the chassis carried a chassis ID number which was different from the set model number because the same chassis were used in several of the set models for a given model year.

Regarding rarity of Edison radios, this seems to be anybody's guess. Until more data comes out of the buried files at the Edison National Historic Site (can't remember it's new name), this remains unknown. Based on watching sales of these items for several years, I would say that the 1929 models are the most commonly found today. The 1928 and 1930 models seem to be found in about equal lesser numbers. None of them are common, but they're not scarce as hen's teeth, either. I'd say they turn up about as often as, say, a Victrola XVII. The exception is the C-1 which is very rare with only maybe six or so known to exist in complete form.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Better late than never: I ran across this today when I was sorting magazines. It's from the May 17 th 1930 issue of Colliers, and must be close to the last advertising that the Edison radio got.

Jim

[schweg]

Looks like an R-6 on Ebay in CA. Item number: 170546303048

Not sure if that price is about right? but a little beyond even my driving range for a long weekend road trip..

Steve S.

[Valecnik]

Wow, it's in pretty nice shap too. I sold mine for ~ $550 after rebuild ~15 years ago. The asking price on this one $1350 buy it now, might be on the high side but if you'd like to have one, they very very rarely turn up...

[jukejunkie]

The Edison R-8 does exist.

I now have 2. One from Boston and one from Pasadena CA. It is short only 43" tall as compared to the R-5 that is 47" tall.