[Arran]

I have to wonder where people get their prices from sometimes, late 1930s console, needs refinishing, needs electrical restoration since it probably doesn't work, $300. Even where I am that would have to be priced at no more the $150 in a store like that, or it would just sit there, in a private sale no more then $100, and radios of that sort are much easier to come by in the U.S mid West then they are here. 
  With regard to the hole near the bottom I believe that it is some sort of vernier tuning scale, the pointer probably travels at three times the rate as the tuning dial pointer does.
Regards
Arran