Magnavox Imperial

[aclarke207]

Clearly needs some loving but looks to be in decent condition overall. If I were still doing consoles I'd be all over it since it's only 15 minutes away.

[electra225]

It's good to see you on the forum! We hope you'll come back often! That is the same cabinet mine has, only mine is in mahogany finish. I hope somebody saves it.

[TC Chris]

It's a handsome console, nice restrained design and not French Provincial, and not too far gone for restoration.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Like the maple finish and clean EA design.
Here's a perfect example of a good console for cheap. One need not pay silly money for ones like this, because the average Joe has no idea of one console from another in most cases, and the market is slow for these large heavy units. You'll see one like this for $100, and probably less, then next some crappy off-brand with SE amp and destroyed finish for $800. There's no logic whatever to this market. One just needs to be patient.

[electra225]

I don't believe that Magnavox used maple finish in the tube stereo days. That color is called "LWAL", light walnut. I have two cabinets that color. Italian Provincial was the cabinet style. My personal belief is that this cabinet is the prettiest one Magnavox built, particularly in mahogany. Rust-oleum makes stain called Antique Walnut that is a dead ringer for this color.

[Firedome]

OK, "Maple colored" finish then perhaps, anyhow it's the same warm color as the maple stuff in our LR. Light to medium finishes are also often used on MCM furniture, like this 1966 Swedish teak sideboard we gave our daughter for her very modern house. This Maggie also has a lift lid that is preferable to the slider type imo and is one of their more handsome units that should be restored!

[Motorola minion]

That looks like a 1ST661, wasn't that the Imperial model #?

Looks like kitty preferred teasing the left tweeter

[electra225]

It is a 1ST233 big Imperial, circa 1959-1960. It has the eye tube, and Conquest changer, so that would date it before 1961. The 1961 Imperials had the S-600 changer and a tuning meter, and, usually FM AFC....

Here is my 1960 1ST233, in mahogany. I believe this is the prettiest cabinet style Magnavox ever built.

[TC Chris]

And in the prettiest wood, too.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

"Wonders in ash" could have been the motto for Magnavox cabinets. They used ash in their cabinets since it is easily machined, does not warp and twist as it ages like some wood does. GM used ash in their Ionia, MI body plant that built GM woodie station wagon bodies back in the day. Ash is resistant to swelling when it gets wet. Nobody did a mahogany finish any better than Magnavox.

[William]

That is definitely my favorite cabinet style from Magnavox. My imperial is in Cherry and French Provencial, model 1-ST 664, I think, and has the tuning meter. French Provencial is not my favorite, but the price is right, I'm cheap, and it's actually the nicest cabinet I have for being in good shape.

Bill

[walyfd]

I like electra's cabinet with the metal speaker dividers.

Now... I know French Provincial is YUCK for some time but, some of it it is so ornate, it's tacky to current standards. This cabinet actually has a moorish look with the arched speaker trim.

French Provincial can range from the white painted stuff with gold trim to a cabinet with a gentle top curve and a carved foot. My 61 fisher executive is French but it blends perfectly with the traditional Queen Anne camel back sofas and cherry end tables. It's not over the top. It blends with traditional style.

Seems like around 1963 or 64 French went Louis 15TH and that's where it lost it.

[TC Chris]

Back when auto bodies were wood-framed and steel-covered, Henry Ford purchased vast holdings in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for lumbering and milling. Then he wondered about what to do with the wood waste, and created Kingsford charcoal as a by-product of the U.P. operations. It was named for Mr. Kingsford, who was a relative who owned a U.P. Ford dealership.

https://www.kingsford.com/kingsford-gri ... d-history/

Chris Campbell

[William]

This is my Imperial, and it's not bad for French Provincial. It's kind of simple and the Cherry wood finish gives a conservative look.

Bill

[walyfd]

Not gaudy to me. Remember the time period. Not everything was MCM. A console was an investment. People weren't going to scrap 5 year old furniture and switch to MCM to build a room around a new console.

I remember that RCA 6HF1 I had in traditional. It went with everything. The modern style was so sleek it only went with modern. I bet they sold a ton more traditional to modern.

[electra225]

I've never understood why people turn their noses up at the more formal furniture styles. Magnavox sold more formal styles than they did modern styles, so there is that.

[TC Chris]

I've never understood why people turn their noses up at the more formal furniture styles. Magnavox sold more formal styles than they did modern styles, so there is that.

I was raised as a bit of a free-range kid. My more formal grandmother was always a bit distressed that my mother allowed us to run around in jeans ("dungarees") and t-shirts, getting dirty. It just wasn't respectable. Right now I can't find the photo of the structure they let me build in the yard from scrap lumber. Let's just say it represented my best efforts when I was 9 or 10. The code book was not consulted. I'm pretty sure that trees are not permitted as structural members. At home, we were allowed to occupy all the rooms of the house, and the living room was where we lived.. So it was a shock to visit homes where the living room was sacred ground, formal, stiff, and perfect. The more formal styles are what you'd find in those rooms. So they came to symbolize BOOOORRRING for me. Dull & formal. Too worried about appearances.

But that one that Greg has in mahogany, that's just fine--handsome, genuinely dignified, well designed. No pretense, just good looks.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Walter, that is one of the finest factory consoles ever built, with really primo Fisher components: X-202 amp and FM-200 tuner. I'd say only the Fisher President with SA-300 EL34 amp, 400CX preamp (regularly sell for 2500-3000 these days) and FM 200 could equal or better it's electronics. One would be lucky to have it regardless of style, but that is a nice conservatively handsome unit, with TOL components that make it truly deserving of the name "musical instrument".

Chris, my step-mother (my Mom died when I was in college and Dad remarried) was like that. She had very formal custom-made Henkel-Harris dark mahogany furniture and a custom brocade sofa with all kinds of Steuben crystal and German porcelain prominently displayed. She was the American version of Hyacinth Bucket, for you PBS fans. She actually had the house keeper vacuum the pale blue wool long-pile LR rug into a shell pattern that made it very evident whenever anyone had walked in there. Only certain lucky adult visitors were generally allowed to enter. My 3 kids would be called on the carpet (sorry, couldn't resist! lol) if they intruded. We joked that she should put up velvet ropes at the door, just like a museum. Never been a fan of formality in any form ever since.

http://www.henkelharris.com/

[electra225]

Please, guys....

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1605

[Firedome]

Mea culpa... I like to tell stories and get carried away sometimes.