I spoke again briefly with the original store owner's grandson and he has promised a full write up of the history of his grandfather, the shop, and the television as well as he can remember/dig up. He thought he might also be able to provide photographs of his grandfather (Clayton Amerman) and of the shop where the television sat for its life. I will of course share anything I receive about the set here.
As for the set itself, I would hesitate to call it completely original and new. I put new in quotes because it was "new" to me, and "new" to any home besides the store from which it came. The finish is in very good condition, but not perfect. There are some spots on the finish that are a little dry. Adding a coat of wax helped tremendously, and I suspect if the set had been treated with some wax every few years it would have looked like it rolled off the assembly line yesterday. Also keep in mind the chassis has been worked on after leaving the factory because the postwar tuner upgrade has been performed. I was able to slide my phone behind the television chassis and I also see a few replacement capacitors. I don't know if these were done at the time of the tuner upgrade or not. All in all the set is incredible, but as with every other 76 year old television, it's not perfect.
I would very much like to find an original owner's manual for the set some day. Does any one out there have an original they would be willing to part with? I know the manual is a rare find, but if you have one I'd sure love to hear from you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave S
THAT has got to be one of the top-tier finds EVER!
You didn't ask, but here's my 2-cents: a totally original set is one of the few examples of the type of mass-produced artifacts we collect that deserves to stay totally original. Please consider leaving it 100% factory stock original, even if that means it will never work. Lots of other sets work. Stratospherically few are 100% original.
-- Dave Sica
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Rest assured this will stay in its original state minus a bit of clean up here and there. There are plenty of other sets to mess around with...
Here are some interesting photos I've taken.
Under television chassis, I spot 10 postwar replacement capacitors, how many can you spot?:
Original channel frequency ranges scribbled out when they did the postwar tuner upgrade:
The shop owner and location stamped on the television chassis, Clayton Amerman Peapack NJ.
