Forty vintage radios dating back to the Golden Age of the wireless have been found in an attic.
The classic sets, which date back to the 1930s, were discovered in the house of a person who passed away by their family who were clearing it out.
Two of which were in bakelite boxes, one of the earliest forms of plastic, and are going to be sold at auction, where they could go for up to £2,000.
Stephen Drake, of Willingham Auctions, said: “I’d gone to the house to look at some railway station clocks, which always sell well at auction, and when I got there I was astonished to see the family had got down all these lovely radios from the loft.
“They are mostly what is called live chassis radio sets, and because the wiring is about 80 years old, much of it has perished.
“But it’s possible to have the equipment restored so the radios can be used again, and I imagine whoever buys them may well do that, although they are beautiful pieces just to look at in their own right.”
It is likely they will be sold as lots of two, three or four, although some may go up for sale individually.
Mr Drake said: “Altogether we expect they’ll fetch about £2,000.”
The auction firm has recently had some fascinating finds, including a large-scale model of a James Bond Aston Martin, with ejector seat and tyre slashers, and a full-size Egyptian sarcophagus.
It also auctioned a set of spoof letters by satirist and playboy William Donaldson, written under his pen name Henry Root, which included missives to the Queen, Margaret Thatcher, football managers, actors, senior civil servants, police chiefs, TV bosses and politicians.
Mr Drake said: “They sold for £1,250 with frenzied bidding in the room and on the telephone. We had The One Show do a special on the letters, and one of the people who came along was the writer Gyles Brandreth.”
The sets go under the hammer at the High Street auction house next Saturday, March 19.
By Oliver Pritchard
