I have recently been blessed with my first mechanical television, a Western Visionette. My example is in a non-factory cabinet. There is one other example that I know of that is very similar to mine which leads me to believe that someone bought the Western Visionette in a kit form, built a decorative custom cabinet for it, and added a radio to the package to tune the signal and make it a complete (vision only) set. I hope that I can find out some more information about who may have built the set, or find more examples.
The set was up for display at the ETF convention this year and I know many of you saw the set there. If you saw the set and have any ideas on its origins please let me know. For those of you who didn't attend the convention here is a photograph of the set at the museum.
Here is a photograph of the other example that I know of with a very similar cabinet.
The only history I have been able to track down about this particular set is that it was found in a barn of a man who horded all things musical. I'm glad he decided this set was worth saving, even if it was sitting in a damp barn for who knows how many decades. The cabinet of the set definitely reflects the fact that it had been sitting in a moist environment for a long time. Much of the veneer is separated and "bubbling". Sadly my cabinet guy has recently decided to retire so I will need to find an expert to make the cabinet right again. Here is a shot of the stand with its seperated veneer which is representative of what most of the rest of the cabinet looks like.
Sadly the mice have made a home in the lower part of the cabinet where the radio chassis was housed. Somewhere in this picture there is a joke about a techno DJ.
I think the radio chassis is a total loss. I am hoping to find another matching chassis and possibly swap as many parts as I can from the original chassis over. The chassis is a Crosley with a model number of 40s, 41s, 42s, or 82s. I found this online and it matches my chassis
http://www.crosleyradios.com/buddy_data_41-S.html. If anyone knows where I can source a replacement I would greatly appreciate it.
That's about all I've found out so far about the set. It will probably take a very long time to get this one finished, but I plan on sharing my progress the whole way so check back for updates from time to time.