Between 2001 and 2005 I did some experiments with old vacuum tubes. You can find cheap or even free tubes and tube equipment in flea markets, dumpsters, amateur radio fairs, etc.
I now have a couple of very old radios which work :
Ondia 185 (1938), my oldest one :
Peugeot P47 (1947) :
Reela Radio Prestige 5 bandes (unknown year) :
Sonneclair Superlux (1953) :
I even have schematics for two radios close to this one :
Socradel Houlgate (1958), with impressive reception quality :
Aréso (???) :
Radiola RA40A (1950) :
I also built some equipement : two MW radio transmitters which were not very successful (and blew up a couple of parts), and a good audio amplifier, made up exclusively from scavenged parts. Tubes used are 12AT7/ECC81 as preamplifier, EL86 as power amplifier (with A-class automatic cathode bias), and 6X4 as rectifier. “Magic eye” tube moving with music (for the fun) is an EM81. The output audio transformer is from a radio that was beyond repair and that I took away for parts (I did not check impedances, just plugged it in, and it worked). And the high voltage electrolytic capacitors from an industrial motor control system 
