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I never really messed with any battery sets, which for the most part puts 20s radios outside the realm of things I'm comfortable / familiar with. But what a looker!

I'm just begining to get an interest in adding an early set to my collection. This one is unique! It's styled like a mechanical music box.
I can picture it with a nice goose-neck horn placed on top.

They are a beautiful set that also came in an AC and a console version. The (rare) matching cone speaker
is oval with a lot of repwood and is pictured in Classic Cones by Buford and Jane Chidester. Even though my
collection evolved towards cathedrals this is one battery set I have kept through the years.

My speaker is a Music Master horn with a wood bell. I also put in a set of blue 01A tubes that look quite nice in this radio against the silver surround. Unfortunately blue tubes were expensive so what I bought were duds just for display purposes.

My Abbey has the all silver deck around the tubes. Below is a very old picture I took many moons ago BDC (before digital cameras).

Though I know it'll end up closing well out of my price range (and being sold with a good set of tubes certainly helps), I'd actually be tempted by it myself if it was an AC set. Battery sets just seem like too much of a hassle to set up for regular use... and I'm not in the habit of collecting things for decorative purposes only. That's what photos and paintings are for

That is nice. Never seen one.

Carl

Actually having a battery set or two around can be pretty rewarding. They're typically pretty easy to work on and
not as much of a hassle as you might think. If you don't want to invest in an ARBE-III (battery eliminator) you can
easily build a simple power supply to power virtually any battery set you might run into. With that and a speaker
you've got a pretty impressive display piece.

Also, while the Splitdorf Abbey isn't exactly common it isn't super rare either. Keep your eyes open and you'll eventually
run into another one. The AC version looks the same except the base is a little taller to accommodate the power
supply; the following link has a picture of the AC version:

http://www.joystick.ca/radio/myradios/myradios.htm

And here is a YouTube video of a battery version in operation with a battery eliminator:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83LcJhahvxk

I've owned my Splitdorf Abbey for 49 years, Opened it up once to find out what it needs and it has been on the shelf ever since...

It is a very impressive set. I put ST 01a's in it as the getter flash on most of that type is on the sides. That permits the glow of the filaments to illuminate across the polished interior bezel.
Many of the radios of the early 20's looked a lot like switchboards. By the mid-20's, competition for the market grew to an extent that styling became an important part of the radio, more so than the circuit it housed. Very few radios had both a pleasing design and quality circuitry.

Chas

I just got an AK 20 battery battery set, and I must say, using them with the battery eliminator is very easy!
The sets are easier than they look to tune-in, they are "instant on" and run super cool - you can just leave these on as long as you please. I wouldn't hesitate to get another now - I'm hooked!

Same here. My Atwater Kent 20C is very easy to setup and use.
I use an ARBE III power supply and I have an RCA Model 100 Speaker (sans cabinet)
mounted in a piece of 1920's furniture called a Speaker Table. Makes such a nice setup
that I leave it connected all the time.

Carl

Hmmmm

Reminds me of the Plain Jane Eveready 20 and or 21
Which used UX240 Tubes

Bob T