> > >> Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown
> > >> away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty
> > >> dresser w/o drawers :)? Also hideaway sewing machines.
As a collector of old radios from the 20s and 30s, I too have seen several
beautiful old cabinets gutted and transformed into things like wine bottle
holders.
Our most recent find in this area was a King Radio cabinet, a 20s classic,
with labelling still intact. The hinged top had been screwed down, the
finish stripped, and the handles replaced by gaudy 70s wrought-iron ones.
The interior had been made into a wine rack.
I was able to un-fasten the lid, remove the "wine rack" bits, and with a
little more work the cabinet now holds an Atwater-Kent model 10-B
breadboard radio from 1923.
It's nice to put these "modernizations" right when possible.
Kevin
> > >The real crime is those who buy sewing machines with pedestals and
> > >treadles, throw away the sewing machine and turn the pedestal into an
> > >olde worlde iron framed coffee table. I am told by a friend in the
> > >trade that this is v. common.
> >
> > There were folks who took a late-20's/early 30's radio which was built into
> > a beautiful wooden cabinet and turned it into a piece of furniture by
> > gutting it. Then there were the late 40's and early 50's TV cabinets which
> > met the same fate. At least I've rescued several of each of these kinds of
> > receivers for my collection.
>
> Then there was this girl I was dating while I lived in Baltimore in
> the early 80's. Her dad had a vintage (early 20th cent.)'magneto'
> (u-crank-it) telephone he mounted on the wall in their basement as a
> conversation piece. He felt it was 'too heavy' so before mounting
> it he gutted the thing. So many historic relics have been destroyed
> in the name of 'interior decoration'.
>
> Jeff
>
>
--
Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD
mcquiggi_at_sfu.ca
Received on Thu Apr 30 1998 - 10:16:17 BST