"US1661058A (USA, filing date 12/05/1925) – oscillator without a linearizing coil." - ILYA
Oh, so interesting to read that, thanks ILYA! In it he's aiming for 500kHz to keep it out of the AM band, I'm going for 450kHz for similar reasons. He also refers to the field as "electrostatic" which I feel is a misnomer since the field is AC. It also seems he's buffering the oscillators before mixing, shades of the ESPE01? Also mentioned are multiple pitch antennas for a polyphonic instrument.
I wish I could shed some light on when the linearizing coil was introduced, but I got nothing. I'm guessing he sensed the non-linearity of the near field and decided a double resonance might help ameliorate it to some degree, and went down that path. It seems he's almost part of the way there with the transformer coupling to the antenna. I agree that it probably deserves a patent of its own.
How does one view SU890? I couldn't find it.