• Type: Tube/Valve Radio (Homebrew/Amateur-Built)

• Era: Early 1920s (c. 1922–1924)

• Brand: Unbranded / Home-Built (Signal Electric Mfg. Co. component tag present)

• Material: Mahogany

• Condition: For parts/restoration — untested

Offering a wonderful piece of early radio history — a hand-built, four-tube receiver dating to the early 1920s, the true "wild west" era of home radio when hobbyists built their own sets from magazine plans and parts catalogs.

This is not a factory-made set. It's a well-constructed home-built (homebrew) radio, housed in a solid mahogany cabinet. 

Features include:

• Four vacuum tubes (period "balloon"-style globes), all present

• Two hand-wound "Hedgehog" audio interstage transformers — a homemade transformer design published in radio magazines of the era (e.g., Radio News, 1922), rarely found intact

• Spiderweb/honeycomb tuning coils and a large solenoid coil

• Two ornately engraved bakelite dial escutcheons on the front panel

• An oval "Signal Electric Mfg. Co., Menominee, Mich." badge affixed inside the lid — likely the maker's tag from a component (coil or panel hardware) sourced from this early Michigan radio-parts manufacturer, rather than a complete factory-built Signal set

Signal Electric Mfg. Co. was a Menominee, Michigan company (est. 1892, reorganized under that name in 1919) known primarily for telegraph keys, sounders, and radio components like loose couplers — not complete tube radios — which supports this piece being an amateur build using their parts.

Condition: Sold as-is, untested. The set has clearly not been powered on or restored recently — please examine the photos closely. Wiring, tubes, and coils all appear present and largely intact, but functionality is unknown and I am not equipped to test/power it safely. Recommended for a collector or radio restorer familiar with 1920s battery sets.

Why it's interesting: Home-built sets from this exact period are genuinely collectible in their own right — they represent the earliest days of amateur radio construction, before mass-produced sets took over the market. The quality of the cabinetry and hardware here suggests a skilled builder, not a crude first attempt.