[Arran]

I understand today's value of this radio as it is a collectable AK, but I fail to understand the appeal back in the days when it was a then consumer product and in fact a piece of furniture. The stove was the first thing that came to mind when I first saw it.

Mike;
  From what I understand Atwater Kent did not have it's own cabinet shop, so it had to outsource to outfits like Pooley or Red Lion for most of the wooden cabinets it used. However A.K, since it was originally in the auto parts business, was well equipped with metal stamping and sheet metal equipment, so the logical thing for them to do was to produce steel cabinets in house for certain models, like the ubiquitous model 40s. It would seem that in the mid to late 1920s the way to produce a budget set was to stamp out steel cabinets, like the Philco 511, the RCA Radiola 33, among others, but only Atwater Kent, and I think Crosley produced, steel consoles. My guess is that the appeal must have been with price, not with acoustics. My late uncle once owned one of these, his was gloss black with gold pin striping, I thought that it was quite nice, but with wrinkle pain it sort of reminds me of an old oil heater.
Regards
Arran