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If you're an uncompromising collector of antique technology, make sure to check out all my listings after you look at this one. I don't think you'll find a better, broader or more balanced assortment of technical antiques anywhere -- hundreds of listings each year, almost all of them featuring eye-popping "gee whiz" gadgetry in exceptional original condition.And don't forget, you can clickthis linkto quickly add and then save me to your favorite seller list and will automatically send you updates when I putsimilar new listings online.
Designed by Joseph Kallus based on artwork by legendary illustrator Maxfield Parrish, RCA's fully-articulated solid-wood Radiotron doll (also known as The Selling Fool) was manufactured in 1926 by the Cameo Doll Company and used by radio dealers to promote RCA Radiotron tubes.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but suffice it to say, for a century-old advertising piece, its condition is unsurpassed. I've bought and sold a few of these dolls over the years, and I've seen several more of them, but I've never seen an example whose condition approached that of the example I'm listing today.
Original throughout, with no issues. Nearly perfect paint, with no crazing and no wear to the extremities, limbs that can be adjusted without collapsing, etc.
Stands on its own, sits on its own, doesn't require any sort of secondary apparatus to maintain its position. Arms can be manipulated, they don't simply fall to his side.
Includes the boxed RCA Radiotron I've been using as a chair for him.
The takeaway: You might be able to find a less expensive Selling Fool, but you'll never find a better one. Anywhere...at any price. It's not even close. If condition is not simply a sideshow for you, but something central to what you spend your time trying to assemble, this colorful guy is for you.
Clean, crisp, correct and destined to become the focal point of any advanced collection of communications advertising or 1920's radios.
I'm one of 's best known, most highly regarded sellers of antique radios, and I specialize in radios from the 1920's.I've been sellingand shippingthem for more than 25 years. When you purchase an antique radio from me, you'll receive a radio that arrives safely because it's been carefully packed (byme, not by some well-intentioned but nonetheless confounded, doe-eyed teenager working at the UPS store who wouldn't know a vacuum tube from a vacuum cleaner), Sure, you can probably get a lower price from Joe and Janet Barn-Find, but when your "bargain" arrives broken, and without any hint of how you might be able to put it back together, you'll realize that you really do get exactly what you pay for.
