Estate Sale Finds in 2010!

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

The "Steen?" Where did they get that name? I wonder what the other model names were that year, too.

Edit - Wickipedia says "Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried February 3, 1679) was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century " - wonder if other models that year were named after painters?

You're search on the name "Steen" led me to investigate the other names in the Zenith catalog. For the longest time, I couldn't understand the meanings of all these names for the TV's. They were always European surnames though.

The mystery has finally been solved. I checked many of the names from the Zenith catalogs and all of the names are indeed well known european painters and artists from about the 17th century. It makes sense why they chose those names considering TV's also produce an image. If I knew anything about european art, perhaps I could have saw a pattern in this long ago...

I noticed that some of the names in the 60's brochures are named after chicago suburbs like "The Lombard", "The Lisle", "The Glen Ellyn" and "The Berwyn" for example. I always thought that was interesting too as that was one obvious pattern I picked up on.

Thanks wayne.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

The mystery has finally been solved. I checked many of the names from the Zenith catalogs and all of the names are indeed well known european painters and artists from about the 17th century. It makes sense why they chose those names considering TV's also produce an image. If I knew anything about european art, perhaps I could have saw a pattern in this long ago...

I noticed that some of the names in the 60's brochures are named after chicago suburbs like "The Lombard", "The Lisle", "The Glen Ellyn" and "The Berwyn" for example. I always thought that was interesting too as that was one obvious pattern I picked up on.

Thanks wayne.

So are there also sets named "President", "Prime Minister", "il duce", "Der Fehure", etc. to go along with my "emperor"?

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by Carmine

So are there also sets named "President", "Prime Minister", "il duce", "Der Fehure", etc. to go along with my "emperor"?

Thats correct. I have a president and a prime minister, both of which are smaller but higher end consoles.

Yours being the highest end model was in a class all of its own. Apparently the emperor outranks the rest.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Thats correct. I have a president and a prime minister, both of which are smaller but higher end consoles.

Yours being the highest end model was in a class all of its own. Apparently the emperor outranks the rest.

I've asked this several times before Doug, but were there other styles of cabinets offered besides the (I think) Italian Provincial style of my Emperor? If so, could I persuade you to post a photo from the catalog?

[drh4683]

---

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

---

???

[batterymaker]

Originally Posted by drh4683

I noticed that some of the names in the 60's brochures are named after chicago suburbs like "The Lombard", "The Lisle", "The Glen Ellyn" and "The Berwyn" for example.

That've made "The Woodridge" a crappy little B&W table set.

At least that's what I thought of the place when I was forced to live there. TWICE....

Bill


BTW--great little portable phono--I remember those kind vividly when I was a kid. My sister had a Silvertone made up similarly to that one.

[drh4683]

I had today off of work so I was able to hit one estate sale. Todays sale was in Elmwook Park, IL at 2527 74th Ct.
I found a nice 23" table model chormacolor II in the vinal clad metal cabinet. RARE, these hardly ever pop up. Its the 2nd metal cabinet chorma II table model I ever found. As I pulled the set away from the wall, I noticed it was still attached to the outdoor antenna lead and the set was not plugged in. I plugged it in and fired it up to see what happened. Well, it works, I picked up a few analog stations that are still going out here but the horizontal hold was off freq and it couldn't come back with the adjustment. I could tell the picture was going to be fine though, it was sharp and bright. Thats an easy fix.
Its a 1976 model G4541W and it uses the 23GC45 chassis. This was still one of the earlier production runs for the vertical chassis, so it used the infamous white safety cap. It was replaced though. Notice it still has the yellow sticker on back indicating that the safety cap was replaced.
One thing happend that really irritated me though. At the sale, a guy was offering to help me move the TV. I told him I'd get it ready by moving the things off the top. However, the first thing I noticed is that the set was sitting on a table too small for the set. I feared that the plastic feet were broken off like they are so many times. Before I even started, I felt underneath and to my surprise, all of the plastic snap in feet were present. It made my day as those are always brittle and break easily if not being careful. Sure enough, as I take the last thing off the top, the guy just jumps in gets ready to grab the set and he turns it 90 degrees on the small table so he could get his grip ready. Right as he was getting ready to turn I said "Wait, don't do that let me help.........." and sure enough it was too late "snap snap snap snap". All of the plastic feet sheered off the bottom of the set when he turned it and I heard all the plastic peices fall to the floor and roll away. The edge of that table was like the sheer and just clipped them all off. I was so po'd at the guy but I didn't say a word, he was only trying to help. I was even more upset because I told him I wanted to do all the prep work from the start as I feared those feet would get damaged if someone was being careless, but he still just jumped in anyway before I could stop him. Well, I looked around the floor to find all of the feet and fortunately I did. The good news is, they're salvagable. Those particular plastic feet with the spreader locking pin are impossible to find so I'll have to silicone them back under the cabinet now or something. Its one thing if something has damage or a flaw that was present before i found it, but when something gets damaged in front of my own eyes, it drives me nuts.

Either way, Its a nice set and it should clean up really well and once I get the horizontal issue fixed. It'll have the razor sharp zenith picture very soon.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by drh4683

Those particular plastic feet with the spreader locking pin are impossible to find so I'll have to silicone them back under the cabinet now or something.

Doug,

Can you post an image of the feet? I have tons of feet from junked sets (thanks Dad!) and may have some undamaged ones I can send you.

Cheers,