My Baird and HMV prewar for auction at Bonhams

[Dave A]

Here I go. I have decided to part with two of my three British prewar sets. A Baird T-23 from 1937 and a HMV 900 from 1936...or so. Plus a Baird Cathovisor CRT from the era with a good filament. It is a 15 MW2 which is the second of a series of these CRT's for Baird sets actually made by Cintel for Baird. The T-23 may be missing a chassis which could change the value. Stay tuned.

I had the Bairds and the Cathovisor imported from Britain in 2000. The T-23 is suspected to be a run of sets to get rid of T-5 cabinets hanging around. They are twins but for the customer control count. The HMV has been passed around here in the states for years, recapped and modded to NTSC with a tuner subber and some re-tuning. I did run it once on a 110/220v adaptor with NTSC RF to the antenna. It came up in a sort of iron cross pattern that expanded to a full raster. It works. Easily restored to 405.

I have been sitting on the sets since 2000 or so and it is time to test the market. I have high reserves on the sets just in case things are not good this time around. I can try again. I am saving a Baird T-5 for a future auction depending on this one. Or I may just keep it and show it as the worlds oldest known television...in my living room.

You can find the Baird and HMV 900 database count at earlytelevision.org The T-23 is a lower count than the T-5 I am saving.

I selected Bonhams as they are British based and have auctioned Baird T-x sets before with spectacular results even during the economic downturn times. And they are likely a conduit to get the sets back to Britain where they should be.

Bonhams picked up the sets a few weeks ago and have photographed them and done a history in the catalog that is beyond spectacular and with far more info than I gave them. I will be at the auction in NYC. Watching...not buying.

The catalog PDF is here and the sets are about 2/3 of the way down. Spread the word to our Brit friends.

https://images2.bonhams.com/original...-22964-0-1.pdf

I may edit as I learn more. The T-23 is the set on the left in the photo as it arrived off the truck. The T-5 is on the right.