The collection, which includes rarities with a big international following, is owned by a Melbourne businessman and has been acquired over some 10 years.
That is about all the Joels specialist, Giles Moon, will reveal. And he says the firm will also offer another tranche of material from the same collector later in the year.
It's something of a coup for Moon, a toys and collectables buff who formerly served with Tim Goodman's firm Bonhams & Goodman - now transformed into Sotheby's Australia, which is part of the same stable as Joels.
Clearly Moon plans to do his bit to liven things up at the staid old auctioneers, with an important sale of vintage toys on the agenda for April featuring rare Mickey Mouse and Popeye items from the mid-1930s.
But back to the radios. Probably the most colourful of the 220 lots on offer are around 80 examples of American Catalin radios that are rarely seen in this country. Catalin, like Bakelite, was one of those miracle plastics that encouraged Jazz Age designers in the 1930s to mould radio cabinets in an array of fancy shapes and colours.
The radios include makes like Garod, Emerson, Fada, Tom Thumb and of course Motorola, and they come in colours - or combinations of colours - from yellow to maroon and marbleised emerald green.
Most are estimated at around $500 and upwards, although, an Emerson AU 190 Cathedral (Lot 47 ) in a cherry red case, carries hopes of $8000 plus and, a Motorola 50XC, circa 1940 (Lot 64 ), in red with marbleised yellow handle and speaker bezel, is estimated at $5000 plus.
The star of the whole sale is Lot 81, the Sparton Noctune (Lot 81 ) - a 1.1 metre high piece of Art Deco sculpture in cobalt glass and polished steel designed circa 1936 by Walter Dorwin Teague, a highly admired figure in the American Moderne aesthetic movement. It's one of only a handful known and is estimated at $40,000 plus, with some examples commanding as much as $100,000, says Moon.
And of course there's plenty for fans of Australian radios.
One standout is the AWA Fisk Radiolette Empire State (Lot 87 ) in its green Bakelite case. This is the iconic "skyscraper" radio from the mid 1930s, a classic of Art Deco design from the days when Australia actually made radios and televisions.
One of probably only a dozen or so extant in Australia, it's estimated at $8,000 plus. There's even a matching cigarette box at $800 plus. Also on offer, the same model in dowdy brown at a mere $700 plus, or in marbleised blotchy white at $2,000 plus. And among a host of other AWA models is the interesting Radiolette "Fret-and-Foot'' in black and green, costed at $1500 plus.
The costliest item among the Aussies is a 1938 Airzone Symphony Leader (Lot 127 ) with a swirling marbleised white and brown case with white knobs - a colour scheme that has won it the nickname "the vomitron". It's the only one known in this colour combination and is estimated at $15,000 plus.
Decorative qualities aside, do they work? Some do, Moon says, although there's no guarantee, and you might have to scrounge up a vintage valve or two. Don't forget they're AM band only, and that Americans use a different voltage. In the end, however, it seems most enthusiasts seek other qualities and prefer not to risk a sparkout with 75 year old electric wiring.