Oldest working television set expected to sell for £5,000

Image courtesy of The Daily Telegraph

Oldest working television set expected to sell for £5,000

On the same day that my TV aerial is upgraded ready for the digital switchover next year I stumble across this story about the sale of the antecedent of all modern televisions.

After 10 or so years of development the very first commercially-available television sets went on sale in the mid-1930s and now Bonhams auction house has one of the very first - the seventh production model, if the article is to be believed - in full working order and ready to be sold to some lucky collector.

It joins the (still rare) ranks of functioning, almost antique television sets alongside the example featured in this B.B.C. report some months ago (below)



Despite the intervening 75 years these Marconiphone 702s are still recognisably televisions and you could watch programmes on them today, if you wanted to (I know I do!) - which in fact the chap in the second article has actually done!  It's appearance is (to these eyes) a welcome antidote to today's flat-screen black boxes (why isn't wood and Bakelite used in TVs these days, I ask you?!) but at the same time it is also a reminder about how far household technology has progressed, not to mention highlighting how commonplace the television has become over the last few decades (and not always for the best, it has to be said!).

Sadly I can't stretch to the £5,000 this particular example is expected to fetch, so I'll just have to add it to my dream 1930s home and trust that whoever it ends up with will appreciate it and preserve it for future generations.  Now I'm off to see what other delights are included in Bonhams' enticingly-named Mechanical Music and Scientific Instruments sale...

Signed Logie Baird book donated to Edinburgh shop

Signed Logie Baird book donated to Edinburgh shop

This is one of those stories that when you read it you wish it had happened to you (and wonder how the previous owner could have come to part with it!). A book about arguably the most influential invention of the 20th Century, signed by the inventor himself, ending up in a branch of Oxfam!

Of course it is really splendid news that it will end up benefiting the charity by being auctioned, maybe for as much as £1,000, and from a philanthropic point of view it's a far better outcome than it languishing undiscovered on the shop's bookshelves. Worse still it could have been snaffled by some unscrupulous dealer type who then sells it on and pockets the money for himself. Or is that fair game? I know I said at the beginning that I'd have loved to have found it myself but I'd like to think that had I done so and then realised it's value - both in monetary and cultural terms - I'd have done just as the shop owner did.

I know it's a thrill when we charity shoppers find a valuable item for an absolute steal, but I think this is such a special occurrence which goes far beyond normal considerations. If you found something on this scale, what would you do?