Leading the three-day auction at $9,840 was this 1937 General Electric circular tower-form tone tester, 12 by 8¾ inches ($1,5/2,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
LONE JACK, MO. — Between November 1 and 3, Soulis Auctions presented 534 lots from R.A. Lane’s Midwest Wireless Museum: the 50-year collection of Robert ‘Bob’ ‘Doc’ Lane. In total, the three-day auction of the Lane collection realized $268,300 and had a 99 percent sell-through rate. Owner Dirk Soulis shared, “I’ve known the Lane’s son, David, for nearly 30 years and first saw the collection a few years ago. It was the type of sale we used to do a lot when the market was different and thus, our focus was different.” Soulis also noted that the majority of lots sold went to collectors, though “a few lots went to a museum that will open soon in a brand-new building under construction about two hours from here in Topeka, Kan. But it is my sense that most went to collectors. There was a lot of interest from overseas but not a lot of successful bids.”
Split into three sessions, the sale featured more than 500 transistor radios offered on the first day. Together, father-and-son Robert and David Lane wrote the book Transistor Radios: A Collector’s Encyclopedia and Price Guide (1994) and illustrated it with the radios offered in this auction. The second day was billed Early Radios, and it began with “the earliest models in the collection and progressed chronologically.”
However, the top lot across all three days was a rare lighted countertop General Electric tone tester point-of-sale demonstration device that sold in the final session, Radios 1930s-1980s. This 1937 tone tester pictured six different models of GE radios from 1926 to 1937 and went to an internet bidder for $9,840. In an email, Soulis explained, “By hooking one’s radio to the device, a dealer could demonstrate how the tone (reception quality) of their current model was lacking compared to the tone of newer models.”
Sold together, the Toshiba TR-193 (1958) and Sony TR-63 (1957) transistor radios more than doubled their high estimate and were bid to $584 ($50-$200).
The transistor radios sold on the first day brought some of the sale’s lower prices, as expected, yet several pairs shot past their estimates. Leading the selection was a lot that included a Toshiba TR-193 (1958) and Sony TR-63 (1957). The larger of the two measured 4½ inches high and though the operating condition was unknown, bidders took a chance, running the set up to $584 against a $200 high estimate. In the second-highest lot on day one, another Sony TR-63 was paired with a Raytheon Trutone Deluxe 4 (D3614B). The Trutone was a horizontal model, measuring 6¼ inches long, and together an online buyer took them home for $461 ($50-$200).
Most of the leading lots came from the Radios 1930s-80s session. Following the sale’s overall top lot was a 1933 Crosley Coca-Cola radio. Soulis remarked: “The second highest selling lot was a Coca-Cola bottle-form radio made by Crosley Radio for dealers as a point-of-sale item. In 1974, Bob Lane saw it advertised at a weekday auction and with the idea that it would sell for four or five hundred dollars and sent his wife Dorris to buy it, which she did — for $3,000, which was more than the car she’d driven to the auction was worth, and pretty much all the money they had in the bank. Throughout the decades that followed, every time Bob told the story, he capped it with, ‘I never sent her to bid on anything ever again.’ When the hammer fell this time at $7,500, Doris was redeemed and David quipped loud enough for the room to hear, ‘I told you Bob!’” Including buyer’s premium, the Coca-Cola bottle radio went to an online buyer for $9,225.
This rare 1933 Crosley bottle-form radio made for Coca-Cola, 23½ inches high, was in good intact condition and sold for $9,225 ($2/3,000).
Made even more rare by including its original glassware, the already elusive circa 1936 Philco Radiobar soared four times its high estimate to bring $5,658. Cataloged as an “outstanding example,” the body of this radio cocktail bar was constructed by Radiobar Co. of America with “various contrasting exotic inlays and ebonized wood highlights” and was fitted with a Philco chassis and chrome interior to house the bar’s original platinum-band glassware. Though some pieces of the glassware were missing, it was only a few and the rest of the Radiobar was in very good original condition.
An Abbotwares Model Z487 radio, with an animated Hula girl on top, found its way to a new owner for $5,166. The dancing woman atop this mid Twentieth Century AM radio was finished with the company’s signature copper flash and wore her original grassy skirt.
From the sale’s second day featuring earlier radios came a late 1920s RCA “camera box” microphone amplifier. Made for NBC, this square amplifier featured the company’s logo with lightning bolts and was a great find for collectors of either physical radios or items relating to broadcast history. An online buyer snatched it up for $4,674.
This late 1920s RCA “camera box” condenser microphone amplifier for NBC, Model AA-4088, stood 59¼ inches tall and went off-air for $4,674 ($1/2,000).
Making $4,140 was an Atwater Kent Model 5 breadboard with five tubes and a Type 11 tuner. Though the operating condition was unknown, its cosmetic condition was very good and clean with no damage or repairs. Soulis cataloged the device as “a very nice example.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Soulis’ 19th Annual Winter Art & Estates Auction will be December 7. For information, www.soulisauctions.com or 816-697-3830.
